Libertarian Bruce Majors Wins Multiple DC Primary Races

Residents of the nation’s capital will have the opportunity to vote for a Libertarian for D.C.’s congressional delegate this November.

Bruce Majors is a realtor and long-time Libertarian activist who won two different write-in campaigns in the city’s June 21 primary. He was originally challenged by a local Democratic Party activist over signatures and removed from the ballot, however, won both races following two vigorous write-in efforts.

Majors spoke with Independent Political Report to discuss his campaign and goals for rebuilding the DC affiliate. For Majors, significant platform issues of his campaign include addressing the dwindling Washington, D.C. population and decentralization. 

“At the current rate, D.C. is going to be smaller than Vermont in one year and smaller than Wyoming in about four years. They’re all gaining 5,000 people a year and D.C. is losing 15,000 people”, Majors said.

“I looked up population growth in all sorts of similar cities and [nearby] cities.”, he explained, “Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of D.C., is just as liberal and also very multiethnic. Its population grew in the past three years. It did not shrink. Philadelphia, not a totally dissimilar city from D.C., [had] its population grow. In the past three years, it did not shrink.”

Majors tells Independent Political Report that D.C. statehood activists who he says argue for statehood on the premise that states smaller than D.C. have greater representation undercut their argument by failing to address the city’s declining populace.

As for why the city is in decline, Majors views a combination of policies enacted by lawmakers like delegate Eleanor Norton Holms and Mayor Muriel Bowser along with gentrification as the largest drivers. He points to neighborhoods like Anacostia where interns rent and renovate group homes together to afford living but in the process force lower-income residents out of the area. Attempts to bring attention to this issue have been met with significant pushback.

In a Twitter exchange between DCLP’s official account and a staffer for Eleanor Norton Holmes, Majors says that he was reported to LNC Executive Director Tyler Harris for allegations of inappropriate behavior. During the conversation, Majors responded to a statement by Norton’s chief of communications that incorrectly stated the number of current residents. An argument broke out between the two of them with the staffer claiming that Majors used language hurtful toward Norton’s daughter and other individuals with disabilities.

The Twitter account was then suspended for impersonation the following day. Harris confirmed with IPR that he was contacted by a staffer from Eleanor Norton Holmes’ office over the exchange and that Majors is the LNC-recognized chair of the D.C. affiliate.

In response of her own, LNC chairwoman Angela McArdle confirms that Twitter took action separate from the Libertarian National Committee to remove the account and that Harris had no involvement. The account remains suspended at this time.

The other fixture of Majors’ campaign is the issue of decentralization. “In this campaign, we’re going to end up talking about decentralization a lot more probably even than privatization, deregulation, or more typical libertarian topics,” Majors said. He gave the office of sheriff as an example of what decentralization could resemble.

“What if there was a sheriff’s office in each ward,” he posited, “[and what] if it was elected by people in that Ward and would enforce laws that the Ward was more interested in.” To Majors, decentralization gives more autonomy to the eight wards that make up Washington, D.C., and would incentivize voters to pay greater attention to what happens in their specific ward.

As for the future of the party, Majors acknowledges that much work needs to be done to turn the DCLP into a serious competitor. When asked if he would incorporate issues from his campaign into rebuilding the party, he had other more immediate plans.

“One of the things that I’m doing is taking an IT class that the [Libertarian Party] runs,” Majors said. “There’s just so much stuff to do like learning how to fix our website.”

Other than rebuilding the entire website, Majors teased that he was actively working on recruiting a high-profile individual to the DCLP. Even then, his interests are primarily infrastructural for the party and include a focus on outreach and mailings to registered Libertarians, creating a regular newsletter, and organizing meet-up events to engage current members.

The general election in Washington, D.C. is scheduled for November 8, 2022. Majors is set to face Democratic incumbent Eleanor Norton Holmes and Republican challenger Nelson Rimensnyder.