Leniqua'dominique Jenkins
At-Large Council — Regular Election — Democratic Primary, June 16, 2026
Not in DC Fair Elections ProgramLeniqua'dominique Jenkins (age 40) arrived in Washington in 2010 as an unpaid intern for Rep. Alan Grayson, working a second retail job in the evenings to make rent. She earned a certificate in entrepreneurship at Operation Hope and used it to launch Capitol Living, a home care agency she ran for ten years — training her father and brother (who were re-entering society after incarceration) as care assistants. She subsequently built businesses that extended as far as East Africa, and has lived and worked in Africa, India, and Spain, a global background she says gives her a model for creative, people-centered policy. She served one term as an ANC commissioner in Deanwood, focused on environmental justice — leading educational walking tours, conducting clean-air studies, and organizing Anacostia River cleanups. In 2021 she ran for the At-Large seat against Bonds; she subsequently worked inside the Wilson Building for both a former and a current councilmember, helping draft legislation and advise on policy. She is an Amazon top-selling children's book author, a public policy columnist, and has written legislative material on Capitol Hill. She currently serves as president of her university's Graduate Student Government. On a personal level, she provides daily care for her mother and helps raise her young niece, which she says grounds her caregiver platform in lived experience. She lives east of the Anacostia River (Ward 7) and says those communities have been "left out of citywide decision-making for too long." Her platform priorities are literacy (noting that approximately 119,000 DC adults and nearly half of Wards 7 and 8 adults face low-literacy challenges), environmental justice centered on a Bottle Bill, community safety through prevention rather than punishment, housing affordability and homeownership pathways, and a caregiver support agenda.
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 treat violence as a public health problem, investing heavily in violence interruption programs and community-based solutions.
Frames public safety explicitly around prevention: 'Safety isn't achieved by punishment alone — it is created when people have access to housing, education, opportunity, and mental-health care.' Proposes expanding youth programs, mental health care access, community-based violence prevention, and crisis-response models pairing police with service providers. At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate — noting her father and brother are returning citizens — she said accountability and safety 'can coexist' by 'investing in people: housing, mental health services, job training, addressing the root issue of what motivates crime.'
Sources: [Leniqua'dominique Jenkins for DC Council — Campaign Website], [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
Every DC public school should have a dedicated behavioral health clinician on staff.
Supports expanding mental health care access for youth as part of her community safety platform, and links literacy deficits to the school-to-prison pipeline. Does not specifically call for a dedicated behavioral health clinician in every school, framing mental health support as community-based rather than school-specific.
Sources: [Leniqua'dominique Jenkins for DC Council — Campaign Website]
DC should enforce a curfew for minors as a tool to reduce youth crime.
Opposes targeted youth curfews, calling the approach 'punitive.' Favors literacy, civic engagement, community investment, and mental health care as the path to youth safety — not enforcement restrictions.
Sources: [Youth Engagement, Education Policy — Washington Informer]
Any youth curfew must be paired with substantial investment in alternative programming — jobs, recreation centers, mental health services — for young people.
Strongly favors investment in youth programming alternatives: expands youth programs and mental health care access as the primary tools for community safety, explicitly rejecting a punishment-first approach. Her literacy platform also proposes integrating educational supports within juvenile justice programs and a citywide 'DC Pen Pal Project' to strengthen youth writing skills and civic awareness.
Sources: [Leniqua'dominique Jenkins for DC Council — Campaign Website]
DC should restore and strengthen TOPA (the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act) to give tenants the right to purchase their building before it's sold to an outside buyer.
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate Jenkins recounted being wrongfully evicted around 2010, displacing three generations of her family, and said she would 'prioritize deeply affordable housing,' 'cut the red tape and expand TOPA legislation that I've actually benefited from,' and extend it with property-tax relief for seniors. A strong, personally grounded commitment to strengthening TOPA.
Sources: [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.
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate Jenkins said small business owners 'aren't prepared to compete with government contracting,' and pledged to 'cut the red tape,' make the process accessible, and provide mentoring so businesses have a 'fair and balanced approach to compete.' Supportive of easing burdens on small businesses, framed around red tape and access rather than tax cuts specifically.
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, Jenkins gave an emphatic 'absolutely not' to returning armed police to all DC public high schools, calling a school 'not a prison institution.'
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 Jenkins, a resident of a transit desert east of the river, said she 'definitely support[s] funding Metro 100%,' framing transit as equity and safety.
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 Jenkins said she is 'open to the conversation,' noting many people 'enjoy the fishes and the loaves' of DC without contributing to its revenue.
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 Jenkins said she would 'definitely prioritize deeply affordable housing,' recounting her own wrongful eviction; new production matters little 'if you can't afford to live there.' Affordability-first.
Sources: [DC Fair Elections Program At-Large primary debate (April 28, 2026)]
The District's RFK Stadium / Washington Commanders redevelopment deal, as structured, is a good investment for DC residents.
At the April 28, 2026 Fair Elections Program At-Large debate Jenkins called the RFK redevelopment 'a point of contention' for her Deanwood (Ward 7) community, faulting it because 'a lot of those good union jobs were committed to unions outside the District of Columbia'; she would broker local-hiring relationships so residents get construction and hospitality jobs. Critical of the deal as structured.
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.
Jenkins champions paid family leave, fair pay for home health and care workers, and investment in the care economy, framing strong worker protections as central to supporting caregivers and families. Supportive.
Sources: [Supporting Caregivers, Strengthening D.C. Families — Leniqua'dominique Jenkins for DC Council]
DC should expand permanent supportive housing and 'Housing First' services to address homelessness, rather than relying on clearing encampments.
Jenkins's housing platform commits to strengthening homelessness-prevention efforts alongside tenant protections and affordable-housing development. Supportive of a prevention- and services-oriented approach, though stated briefly.
Sources: [Housing with Dignity — Leniqua'dominique Jenkins for DC Council]
General sources
- Leniqua'dominique Jenkins for DC Council — Campaign Website — votejenkinsfordc.com. Accessed 2026-05-29.
- Meet the candidates for an At-Large seat on the DC Council — The 51st — The 51st. Accessed 2026-05-27.
- Youth Engagement, Education Policy — Washington Informer — Washington Informer. Accessed 2026-05-29.