Trayon White

White was born on May 11, 1984, in Washington, D.C., and was raised in the Southeast quadrant.He experienced poverty during his childhood and has stated that violence was common in his neighborhood. As a teenager, he was arrested for car theft but was not prosecuted. He later earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 2006. White later enrolled at a Master's degree program in public administration at Southeastern University in Washington, D.C., but apparently did not complete his studies. ==Community activism==

White became involved with the East of the River Clergy Police Community Partnership (ERCPCP) while in high school. He remained involved as a mentor and sports coach while in college, and joined ERCPCP as a paid community outreach worker about 2006. Interviewed by The Washington Post in January 2008, White said that a large number of his friends were robbed in D.C. in 2007, and he knew five people who had been murdered that year. "Living in the streets, you get numb to it and learn to cope with it. It's hard for me to cry when I go to funerals anymore," he said. White, who lived in the Washington Highlands neighborhood, denounced the 2007 shooting of 14-year-old DeOnte Rawlings by an off-duty D.C. police officer as "injustice." In November 2007, White founded Helping Inner City Kids Succeed (HICKS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping poverty-stricken children east of the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. White received the Linowes Leadership Award from the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region in May 2008 for his work with at-risk young people. In 2011, an editorial in The Washington Post said White's nonprofit "is doing interesting work with inner-city youth" and that White had real insight "into the problems confronted by students in Ward 8 schools". During his time as a community activist, White was mentored by William O. Lockridge, a longstanding member of the D.C. Board of Education. ==D.C. Board of Education==

White was elected to the District of Columbia Board of Education in 2011 and reelected in 2012. He resigned from the board in 2014 after accepting a position with the District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation, as city law prohibited holding both roles simultaneously. ==First run for District Council==

On Sunday, November 23, 2014, 78-year-old Marion Barry died at United Medical Center, hours after having been released from Howard University Hospital. White was one of the people Barry called immediately after leaving Howard. On December 16, The Washington Post reported that White was one of many individuals contemplating a run for Barry's Ward 8 council seat. White was one of the first to file as a candidate in the special election to fill the remainder of Barry's term (which expired on December 31, 2016), doing so in late December 2014. Under District of Columbia Board of Elections rules that permit candidates to run under whatever name they wish, White asked for his name on the ballot to be listed as "Trayon 'WardEight' White". White later explained that friends began calling him by the nickname "WardEight" on Facebook, and he intended to use it on the ballot. By the end of January 2015, White had raised a $2,562 in campaign donations. In comparison, LaRuby May had raised $177,405, and former Vincent C. Gray mayoral aide Sheila Bunn had raised $51,692. Despite the low level of initial fundraising, the Washington City Paper, quoting unnamed Ward 8 political insiders, said White probably shared the lead in the race with May. By the end of February, White had raised over $10,000 and had $12,000 in his campaign coffers. On April 3, May easily won a Ward 8 Democratic party straw poll, confirming her lead in the Ward 8 race. Candidates Stuart Anderson and Jauhar Abraham dropped out of the race over the next four days, and urged voters to support Trayon White. Election results Turnout in the Ward 8 special election on April 28, 2015, was especially high, with more than 6,200 ballots cast by the ward's nearly 52,000 voters. That was nearly 75 percent of the turnout in the 2014 mayoral primary—far exceeding expectations. Preliminary election results released late in the evening on April 28 showed LaRuby May with 1,711 votes and Trayon White with 1,559 votes, a difference of just 152 ballots. Although May outspent White 16-to-1, election observers said White had surged late in the race as an "anti-establishment vote" and that he had consolidated much of his support by drawing it from other candidates in the crowded field. However, with 1,031 provisional and absentee ballots yet to be counted, the District of Columbia Board of Elections (BOE) said the outcome of the race was too close to call. Under D.C. election law, voters who engaged in same-day registration, whose current address did not match the one on file with the BOE, or those who voted in the wrong precinct now had ten days to come forward and show proof of residency so that their votes would count. The Washington Post said its analysis showed White needed to win 65 percent of the provisional and absentee ballots to prevail. By May 7, with 823 provisional and absentee ballots counted, May led White by 80 votes. Two hundred seventeen provisional ballots remained uncounted, but the BOE said the deadline set by election law required voters to show proof of residency by 5 pm on Friday, May 9, to have their ballot count. On May 9, the D.C. Board of Elections announced its final, unofficial ballot count in the Ward 8 special election. After counting 951 of the 1,031 provisional and absentee ballots, the BOE declared that LaRuby May won the election with 1,955 votes to Trayon White's 1,876—a margin of 79 votes, or 1.08 percent of all ballots cast. May picked up 244 votes (25.66 percent of all provisional and absentee ballots) and White 317 (33.33 percent of all provisional and absentee ballots cast). Under D.C. law, a winning margin of less than 1 percent creates an automatic recount, an outcome May avoided. The BOE said it would certify the Ward 8 special election on May 14, 2015, and The Washington Post said May would likely be sworn in as a D.C. council member at that time. White said he would ask for a recount. Nevertheless, the BOE said that May would take her seat immediately and begin council work right away after the election was certified and she was sworn in. The BOE indicated that White's request for a recount would wait until the certification was made. White initially asked for a recount on May 22. However, just a few hours after the recount began on May 28, he asked the Board of Elections to suspend its recount. ==Second run for District Council==

White spent much of the next year maintaining a high profile in Ward 8. He routinely attended demonstrations in favor of better public housing and job training, and against gentrification; visited areas where murders occurred; and led protests against Mayor Bowser's proposed anti-crime proposals. His work attracted strong support among teenagers and young adults in their 20s. On June 18, 2015, White was hired as a temporary employee in the Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia. He worked as a Community Development Specialist, focusing on education, engagement, and outreach to organizations and communities. His portfolio focused on at-risk youth, juvenile justice issues, combatting designer drug use, and general outreach to neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. His employment ended on September 30, 2015. On February 8, 2016, White filed as a candidate for the Ward 8 District Council seat in the Democratic primary. Few other candidates were expected to run in the race, and at the filing deadline White already had the endorsements of Jauhar Abraham, Stuart Anderson, Marion Christopher Barry, In addition to May, White faced candidates Maurice Dickens, Bonita Goode, and Aaron Holmes. May, however, proved to be an agile fundraiser. By the end of March, May had $184,000 in donations compared to White's $12,000. May proved highly popular among healthcare companies and real estate developers, and her donation network spread nationwide. On May 14, White won the Ward 8 Democratic Party straw poll. With only 200 party members voting, White won 135 votes to May's 50 votes. Holmes came in third with eight votes, Dickens won two votes, and Goode won none. May declined to appear at the event. On May 27, however, the editors of The Washington Post endorsed LaRuby May for council. Days before the primary election, Vincent C. Gray also appeared to endorse White. Gray, attempting to return to the District Council by challenging incumbent Yvette Alexander in Ward 7, funded a pro-White robocall effort that called White an "independent thinker". With the primary election just four days off, on June 10, the city's office of campaign finance reported that May had raised a total of $245,090 during the entire election season, compared to White's total of just $31,059. Nevertheless, The Washington Post declared that the race would be very tight. During the primary campaign, White endorsed Robert White, who was challenging incumbent Vincent Orange for an At-Large seat on the Council. White and White appeared together at times when Robert White campaigned in Ward 8. Primary election results LaRuby May lost the June 14, 2016, Democratic nomination to Trayon White, 51 percent to 43 percent (4,272 votes to 3,584 votes). The turnout in the primary was approximately 8,700. The total voting age population in Ward 8 was approximately 57,000 at the time. General election In June 2016, White endorsed a D.C. campaign finance reform proposal to bar any person or corporation from receiving a city contract with $100,000 or more if they donate to a District Council election. The proposal was one of the strictest of several proposals to address corruption and ethics issues facing the Council, several of whose members had been found guilty of ethics and fraud charges in the past several years. On November 8, 2016, White was unopposed in his bid to win the Ward 8 Council seat, and won with 25,870 votes (93.29 percent of all votes cast). ==Council tenure==

White was sworn into office at noon on January 2, 2017. In 2017, White spoke to NPR about the ward's work on how to help finding critically missing children. In March 2018, White organized protests against a development in his Ward. Targeting developers Bozzuto and Chapman Development, White complained that they did not hire enough local labor and contractors. White pointed to the opening of a new Washington Wizards practice facility, the opening of a Starbucks, tax increment financing to construct a mixed-use affordable housing/hotel/office building, and the construction of a new building to replace the aging United Medical Center (UMC) as evidence of his successful first term in office. The Washington Post characterized his voting record on liberal issues as mixed, noting, for example, that he reliably supported expanding social services yet also voted in favor of overturning a voter-passed initiative to give tipped workers the minimum wage. He spent much of his time engaging in constituent service, such as distributing free groceries, attending protests, intervening with police, and distributing cloth masks during the covid-19 crisis. During his time on the council, White pushed for the removal of trees on Xenia Street in Ward 8. In 2023, The Atlantic found that the trees in question were not opposed by neighborhood at large. Rather, the opposition to the trees was spearheaded by Darryl Ross who believed that the trees were bad for home values. Ross did not live in the neighborhood but owned an apartment there that he rented out. Ross was treasurer of White's constituent services fund, which critics have called a "slush fund." In what was supposed to be a mail-in election due to the covid-19 health crisis, just 3,500 mail-in ballots were requested, while 3,200 residents cast in-person votes at the three physical polling places. ==Jewish conspiracy theory controversy==

In March 2018, White sparked controversy by stating that the Rothschild family controls the weather. Following the response from community members and leaders, White apologized, met with Jewish community leaders, and visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. During his visit on April 19, White reportedly abruptly left the 90-minute tour halfway through. Initial post and reaction On March 16, 2018, White posted a video on his official Facebook page showing snow flurries falling, alluding to the conspiracy theory of the Rothschild family conspiring to manipulate the weather. In his post, he stated, "Y'all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation … And that's a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful." The comment was widely reported in Washington and worldwide media as an endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory. The Washington City Paper reported on March 19 that this was not the first time White alluded to a Jewish conspiracy to control global weather. White later apologized for making the statement, In an apology to his fellow council members, White explained why he had come to believe in the conspiracy theory: "Somehow, I read and misconstrued both the Rockefeller and Rothchild [sic] theories. At that breakfast, I indeed misspoke, was really misinformed on the issue and ran with false information. I think I heard other similar information before about the theory around the World Bank and put it all together." ==2022 mayoral candidacy==

White unsuccessfully ran for mayor of the District of Columbia in 2022 against incumbent Muriel Bowser. Bowser ultimately won the Democratic primary election with 49% of the vote, with White coming in third place with 9% of the vote. ==Arrest, expulsion, and return==

On August 18, 2024, White was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for allegedly accepting bribes. The FBI stated that White had accepted $156,000 of bribes in order to pressure District employees to give $5.2million-worth of contracts to the companies that had given him the payments. The companies wanted White to use his position of chairman of Council's Committee on Recreation, Libraries and Youth Affairs to pressure employees at the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. The contracts were for providing violence intervention services. During his initial appearance in federal court on August 19, 2024, White did not enter a plea. However, it was agreed as condition for his release from prison, he had to surrender his passport and any guns and must also notify pretrial services if he plans to travel outside the D.C. area. He was sworn back in to his council seat on August 8, 2025. ==Electoral results==

2011 2012 2015 2016 2020 2022 2024 2025 ==References==