Monday, June 15, 2026
By Francis Rienzo
Janeese Lewis George, a top Democratic mayoral candidate, was ordered by D.C.’s Office of Campaign Finance to pay $16,000 in fines on Friday. Investigators found that her team had been working with labor unions improperly. OCF stated that Lewis George had shared five staffers with the Unite Here Local 25 labor union, while the union has also supported the campaign through an independent expenditure committee.
This revelation came less than one week before D.C.’s Primary Election Day, when many votes have already been cast.
The agency also cited that the campaign had been allowing staffers to use personal credit cards for campaign purchases, rather than a campaign account. Lewis George’s team defended themselves, saying the shared workers followed guidelines and only worked on campaign property.
According to the Washington Post, Lewis George’s campaign seeks to overturn the agency’s order, framing it as “absurd, outrageous” and an effort to derail the campaign. In a statement Saturday, the campaign said, “OCF’s order is riddled with factual errors and violates procedural requirements that govern its investigations.” They moved on to say they will appeal the decision to the D.C. Board of Elections, calling it a “targeted attack.”
Independent expenditure committees can put money towards advertising for candidates, but they have to act strictly independent of the campaign, otherwise it is framed as a contribution. The Washington Post has previously reported that Lewis George’s campaign manager and spokesperson are employed by the D.C.-area chapter of the Unite Here hospitality workers union.
Unite Here Local 25 denied the accusations in a statement on Saturday, saying it “appears to attempt to improperly, and possibly illegally, interfere with Tuesday’s election.” The OCF had found that the separation between the campaign and the labor groups’ spending was not enough. The 40-page report by OCF was made publicly available on its website on Friday with multiple typos and inconsistencies, and they soon uploaded a new version with correct dates while keeping typos and grammatical errors.
Jos Williams, chair of the Safe & Affordable DC independent expenditure committee, called out OCF for grammatical errors and misspelled words in their investigations. Williams stated that the campaign “responded fully, but OCF’s conclusions took no account of the evidence we presented.”
Kevin Sobkoviak filed a complaint claiming that Lewis George’s team was sharing employees with unions tied to the independent expenditure committee in April. Lewis George campaign manager Adam Yalowitz and spokesperson Amanda Michelle Gomez were among those cited in the complaint as working for the campaign, while remaining on union payrolls. The campaign fired back that they were under written agreements to prevent any coordination, with strict guidelines on how to handle spending and not to breach the “firewall” of separation.
Lewis George and her campaign have said each allegation is false. The report had claimed several witnesses from the campaign did not reply for comment, to which the campaign said none of them had ever received word from the OCF.
The other leading Democratic mayoral candidate Kenyan McDuffie said of the investigation, “The truth has finally come out.”
It’s been a fiery race between Lewis George and McDuffie, both being considered the top candidates. A spokesperson for McDuffie’s campaign said that it’s concerning that the Lewis George “campaign can’t even go a week without a scandal.” He also criticized the OCF for waiting six days from June 6, when the investigation finished, to publish any details.
Lewis George’s campaign has 15 days to file an appeal to the Board of Elections.