Edward Daniels has spent the last eight years doing the least glamorous, unpaid job in DC government - on purpose.

 

As one of the city’s most experienced Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners (ANCs), he has logged countless hours negotiating development deals, acquiring (actual) affordable housing, securing community benefits, and holding some of the District’s most dysfunctional agencies accountable even when Councilmembers who oversee them turn a blind eye.

 

Daniels has served as Chairperson of ANC 6D and ANC 6/8F, representing some of the District’s most densely populated and fastest growing neighborhoods including his home of Navy Yard (named one of the 12 coolest neighborhoods around the world by Forbes Magazine), Buzzard Point, Southwest, and The Wharf.

 

Working within the bounds of two different Business Improvement Districts, two major sports stadiums (Nationals Park and Audi Field), and in tandem with two Councilmembers across two Wards (being one of the city’s few hybrid ANCs), he has gone toe-to-toe with slumlords, helped residents cut through unnecessary red tape within a government that too-often feels impossible to navigate, and called out dysfunctional city agencies (spotlight on you DDOT) who continue to generate far more problems than they solve, all the while holding on to inflated tax payer-supported salaries.  

 

In his own words: “I love this city and I want every single person who calls DC home or visits this place to feel the way I felt when I moved here over 20 years ago and the way that I still feel today!

 

I’m an entrepreneur – a creative entrepreneur. I note this because my work ethic, running my own business, has heavily relied on efficiency and producing quality results for my clients. In the private sector, if I don’t get something done, I don’t get paid. I entered public service expecting those same standards and quickly learned that government too often rewards process over performance. While there are a lot of amazing people doing tremendous work for the residents that we serve, at the same time there are also a lot of people collecting a nice government check whether they get anything done or not. While government isn’t a small business and requires checks and balances, those safeguards should never excuse inaction and poor performance. Taxpayers deserve a government that moves with urgency, measures success by outcomes, and delivers real results. Period. 

 

When elected, I want to stop normalizing $6000 one-bedroom apartments and applauding ourselves for tackling an affordable housing crisis with no end in sight.

 

When it comes to public safety, I want to ensure that all crime in our city is punishable to the full extent of the law regardless of whether the offender is a juvenile or elected official.

 

I want to ensure that Vision Zero is more than a trendy phrase tossed around by a Department of Transportation that offers minimal community feedback and evaluation of botched transportation projects that continue to fail the Vision Zero concept.

 

I pledge to stand in full solidarity with our Council, the Executive Office of the Mayor, and our incoming Delegate to finally make Home Rule a reality, preventing federal overreach and allowing for complete autonomy when it comes to budgeting our own local tax dollars.

 

Finally, given the inhumane treatment and murders of US citizens who choose to exercise their First Amendment right to protest the directives issued by the vile, racist, misogynistic, 34-count convicted and narcissistic felon occupying the White House, I plan to introduce legislation that would bar any current or former member of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from employment by District law enforcement and, further, from ever operating a business in the District of Columbia.”  

 

Edward is a 2002 graduate of the University of Virginia. He served on the Frederick Douglass Bridge Advisory Committee, the Greater Washington DC-Baltimore Actors’ Equity Association Liaison Committee, and was named one of DC’s Finest by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

 

He is a Helen Hayes Award-winning actor, event producer, and entrepreneur who has called Washington, DC home for the past 23 years.  He’s appeared in House of Cards, Veep, and on multiple stages throughout the DC region. He lives in Navy Yard with his dog Paris and can reference most of life's oddities to an episode of Portlandia.

 

“I’ve done this work, up close, block by block for eight years – now it’s time to take it citywide!”