Dyana Forester
At-Large Council — Regular Election — Democratic Primary, June 16, 2026
Participating in DC Fair Elections Program ✓Dyana Forester (age 46) grew up in a working-class family in Southeast DC and became a mom at 18. She built a career in labor organizing, starting at Teaching for Change (community schools and parent engagement), then DC Jobs with Justice (fighting for Walmart worker wages), and then as political and community affairs director for UFCW Local 400 — where she helped pass DC's minimum wage increase and paid family leave law. She was elected president of the AFL-CIO's Metropolitan Washington Council before becoming senior director of labor relations to Maryland Governor Wes Moore. A former DC Housing Authority commissioner, housing is a major priority for Forester, particularly workforce housing for teachers, bus drivers, firefighters, and police. She questions whether building faster is the right first answer: "Is this the right solution for the problem we want to fix? And the fix is, how do we create more affordable housing for families?" She frames her candidacy as bringing lived working-class experience to a council that often debates policy without it.
Positions on the issues
All positions are sourced directly from the candidate's campaign materials, official questionnaire responses, or verified news coverage. Stances are rated on a scale from Strongly opposes (−2) to Strongly supports (+2). A stance of Unknown means no public position has been found.
DC should significantly increase the Housing Production Trust Fund.
Former DC Housing Authority commissioner; wants to increase investment in affordable housing and workforce housing. Skeptical of fast-build-first approaches; focuses on what families can actually afford. At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate she said she will 'always prioritize affordability,' recounting that on the DCHA board she and another commissioner voted against a project when developers asked the board to lower its deep-affordability requirement, because that public land 'belongs to the public housing residents of the District of Columbia.'
Sources: [Meet the candidates for an At-Large seat on the DC Council — The 51st], [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
DC should cut taxes and fees on small and local businesses — and offer relief such as the small retailer property tax credit — to help them open, survive, and grow.
A labor leader and former AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Council president whose campaign pillars include 'support for small businesses and job growth.' Emphasizes streamlining permitting and licensing scaled to small businesses, reducing administrative burdens, and commercial rent-stability incentives to keep local operators in their neighborhoods. At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate she named small business as the sector to prioritize for displaced federal workers, arguing many have the skills to be entrepreneurs and contractors but DC lacks 'the structure in place to support them.'
Sources: [Meet the candidates for an At-Large seat on the DC Council — The 51st], [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
DC should raise taxes on large corporations and the wealthiest residents to close the District's budget gap.
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate, asked what she would cut, Forester said DC should 'cut tax loopholes for corporations that have come to DC and not been accountable to the District of Columbia and that are taking our money' — closing corporate tax breaks to recapture revenue, consistent with a progressive-revenue posture.
Sources: [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
DC should treat violence as a public health problem, investing heavily in violence interruption programs and community-based solutions.
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate Forester — a survivor of violent crime — emphasized creating opportunities for youth to 'choose a different path,' citing a pre-apprenticeship program she ran, and the power of exposure and of an adult 'believing in' young people (recalling a teacher who believed in her). A prevention-and-opportunity, community-based approach to youth violence.
Sources: [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
DC should keep police officers out of public schools and instead invest in counselors, social workers, and mental-health staff.
Reverse-coded question: keeping armed police out of schools aligns with the statement. In the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate lightning round, Forester answered 'no' to returning armed police to all DC public high schools.
Sources: [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
DC should expand the 'community schools' model, where schools serve as neighborhood hubs providing mental health, family support, and other services beyond education.
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate Forester named 'prioritizing community schools' as a first-year commitment, noting she helped get community-schools legislation passed years ago that 'has never been funded' and that she would fight to fund it. Her career began at Teaching for Change working on community schools and parent engagement — a longstanding, concrete commitment to the model.
Sources: [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
DC should respond to Trump administration interference in city governance with an assertive, public stance — filing lawsuits, passing protective legislation, and refusing to comply with unlawful federal directives — rather than quiet diplomacy or pragmatic deal-making.
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate Forester said a core reason she is running is that DC's leaders — the Attorney General, Mayor, and Council — have not 'united together to push back against the administration and the attacks' and have not 'worked strategically.' A longtime statehood activist who says she 'got locked up fighting for statehood,' she calls for proactive, coordinated resistance rather than waiting — an assertive posture.
Sources: [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
DC should increase its funding for Metro (WMATA), even if it means cutting other city services.
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate Forester called it 'a hard question' — DC needs to fund Metro equitably and pay its workers, 'but we should not be cutting other services to fund Metro.' Supportive of Metro funding but against the cuts-elsewhere tradeoff; recorded as mixed.
Sources: [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
DC should impose a commuter tax on people who work in the District but live in Maryland or Virginia (if federal law allowed it).
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate Forester said she 'would consider it with some nuances' — torn between DC families who commute in from Maryland and out-of-state workers who profit in DC and leave. Recorded as mixed.
Sources: [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
When the two conflict, DC should prioritize building more housing quickly — including market-rate — over maximizing deep-affordability requirements on each project.
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate Forester emphatically chose affordability over speed, recounting voting on the DC Housing Authority board against lowering a project's deep-affordability requirement because the public land 'belongs to the public housing residents of the District of Columbia.' Emphatic framing plus concrete action support a strong stance.
Sources: [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
DC should strengthen worker protections — expanding paid family and medical leave and raising the minimum wage — even if it raises costs for employers.
As president of the Metro Washington Labor Council, Forester helped lead DC's minimum-wage increase and Paid Family and Medical Leave campaigns and has built her career raising wages and protecting workers. A signature priority — strongly supports.
Sources: [About / Proven Results — Dyana Forester for DC Council]
General sources
- Meet the candidates for an At-Large seat on the DC Council — The 51st — The 51st. Accessed 2026-05-27.