Yaida Ford is a write-in candidate for mayor of Washington, D.C. She did not qualify for the June 16, 2026 Democratic primary ballot. Ford is a civil rights attorney whose career began in 2005 clerking for Judge Harold Cushenberry at DC Superior Court's Criminal Division. She spent four years at the Legal Aid Society of DC representing disabled workers seeking Social Security benefits, then served as legislative counsel to Council member Jim Graham (Ward 1), focusing on job training for low-income mothers. Since entering private practice in 2012 she has specialized in civil rights litigation, winning verdicts or settlements against the U.S. DOJ, USDA (10 settlements), MPD, WMATA, U.S. Park Police, DC Housing Authority, public charter schools, and private developers. Ford is a Marshall-Brennan Fellow who taught constitutional literacy at Dunbar High School and an Abramson Fellow. Her senior advocacy work includes helping elderly couples avoid foreclosure after predatory lending, protecting senior landlords victimized by rental assistance fraud, and challenging corporate landlords who neglect maintenance to force seniors out. She has sued the District over permitting barriers to urban food production, and raises backyard hens, multiple garden beds, and fruit trees at her home in a DC food desert. Her father Earl was among the first Black men hired as a soil scientist by the USDA in the early 1970s; her mother Linda taught 16 years in Head Start. Both parents worked Louisiana cotton fields to pay for college — a legacy of resilience that Ford cites as the foundation of her civic values. Her campaign platform emphasizes economic empowerment through vocational trades and AI upskilling, DC statehood and local autonomy, government accountability, balanced housing policy protecting tenants and small landlords alike, DPR programming for youth, and transparent community policing.
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 increase funding for the Department of Parks and Recreation, including extended rec center hours and expanded youth and senior programming.
Campaign platform explicitly calls for DC Parks and Recreation to incorporate programming for teens and 'tweens' and pledges to collaborate with community leaders, faith leaders, coaches, and clubs to connect youth to DPR services.
Sources: [These four candidates are also running for D.C. mayor — The 51st]
DC should treat violence as a public health problem, investing heavily in violence interruption programs and community-based solutions.
Campaign values state that public safety policies 'should address the root cause of crime and incentivize strong community engagement between local police and DC residents,' while also calling for transparency in policing communities of color.
Sources: [These four candidates are also running for D.C. mayor — The 51st]
DC should end mayoral control of DC Public Schools and return authority to an elected State Board of Education.
Her Educational Excellence platform states: 'For as long as our schools have been under mayoral control, far too many of our students, including those with special needs, remain left behind. Yaida wants to explore eliminating Mayoral control of our school system and giving power back to elected state board representatives where it belongs.'
Sources: [Values — Yaida Ford for Mayor]
DC should directly intervene to eliminate food deserts — including by opening a publicly owned grocery store in underserved areas like east of the Anacostia.
Ford lives in a designated food desert and has made food access a personal cause — teaching urban families to raise backyard hens, advocating for fresh-food access, and suing the District over permitting barriers to home food production. Supports city action on food deserts, though her emphasis is on resident self-sufficiency and removing barriers rather than a publicly owned grocery store.
Sources: [Meet Yaida — Yaida Ford for Mayor]
DC should overhaul the IMPACT teacher-evaluation system and make the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) independent of the mayor.
Ford wants to move authority away from mayoral control of the schools and back to the elected State Board of Education, which aligns with making the state education apparatus independent of the mayor. She supports the governance-independence thrust of this question, though she does not specifically address the IMPACT teacher-evaluation system.
Sources: [Values — Yaida Ford for Mayor]
DC should expand permanent supportive housing and 'Housing First' services to address homelessness, rather than relying on clearing encampments.
Ford proposes a new department of trained resource officers focused on outreach, relationship-building, and problem-solving with people facing homelessness, in partnership with community organizations — to 'keep homelessness from overrunning the streets.' This is a middle, engagement-based approach that neither commits to Housing First expansion nor to encampment clearing.
Sources: [Values — Yaida Ford for Mayor]
General sources
- These four candidates are also running for D.C. mayor — The 51st — The 51st. Accessed 2026-05-28.