D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has served 18 terms, is ending her reelection campaign for Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s 18-term congressional delegate and a veteran of the civil rights movement, has filed papers to end her reelection campaign, potentially ending a decades-long career in public service.

Norton (88 years old) has been the only representative of the residents of the nation’s capital in Congress since 1991, but she faced increasing questions about her effectiveness after the Trump administration began its sweeping intervention in the city last year.

Mayor Muriel Bowser congratulated Norton on her retirement.

“For 35 years, Congresswoman Norton has been our warrior on the hill,” Bowser wrote on social media. “Her work embodies the unwavering resolve of a city that refuses to give up in its fight for equal representation.”

Norton’s campaign filed a termination report with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday. Her office did not issue an official statement about the delegate’s intentions.

The recording was first reported by NOTUS.

Her retirement opens the door to a potentially competitive primary to succeed her in a heavily Democratic city. Several local legislators had already announced their intentions to run in the Democratic primary.

A political institution in Washington for decades, Norton is the most senior member of the House of Representatives. She was a personal friend of civil rights icons like Medgar Evers and a contemporary of other activists-turned-congressional advocates, including Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-Ga., and the late Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., and John Lewis, D-Georgia.

But Norton has faced calls to step down in recent months as residents and local lawmakers have questioned her ability to effectively defend the city in Congress amid the Republican administration’s aggressive moves toward the city.

The White House created a federal police force in Washington, deployed National Guard troops from six states and the federal district to the streets of the capital, and pushed federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security into neighborhoods. These moves sparked protests and protests from residents and a lawsuit from the district attorney general.

Norton’s retirement comes at a time when a historically high number of lawmakers have announced that they will either seek another public office or retire from official duties altogether. More than 1 in 10 House members are not seeking re-election this year.

Norton’s staunch defense of her city

As a district delegate, Norton does not have an official vote in the House. But she found other ways to defend the city’s interests. Dubbed the “Warrior on the Hill” by her supporters, Norton was a staunch advocate for D.C. statehood and for labor rights for federal workers who called Washington and the surrounding area home.

He watches: Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton talks about breaking the glass ceiling

It also ensured victories for both parties for the region’s residents. Norton was the driving force behind the passage of a law allowing them to attend any public college or university in the country at in-state tuition rates or to be eligible to attend any private university with an annual scholarship of up to $2,500.

In the 1990s, Norton played a key role in ending the city’s financial crisis by brokering a deal to transfer billions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities to the federal government in exchange for changes to the district’s budget. She twice played a leading role in the House passing a D.C. statehood bill.

Steeped in the civil rights movement

Norton was born and raised in Washington, and her life spans the region’s trials and triumphs. She was educated at Dunbar High School as part of the school’s last segregated class.

“Growing up black in Washington gave it a special advantage,” she said in her 2003 autobiography, Fire in My Soul. “This whole black community was very conscious of race, very conscious of civil rights.”

She attended Antioch College in Ohio and in 1963 divided her time between Yale Law School and Mississippi University, where she worked as an organizer during the Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Summer.

One day that summer, Evers picked her up at the airport. He was assassinated that night.

Norton also helped organize and attend the 1963 March on Washington.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2023, Norton said the march remained “the most extraordinary experience of my life.”

She became the first woman to lead the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which helps enforce anti-discrimination laws in the workplace. She ran for office when her predecessor retired to run for mayor of Washington.

Associated Press writer Gary Fields contributed to this report.