DC’s Likely Next Mayor Has a BDS Operative Running Her Campaign

Jewish Insider reports that Janeese Lewis George’s political director has been sharing social media videos calling Israel ‘evil’ and endorsing BDS — while Lewis George herself, the current frontrunner in the D.C. mayoral race, has told the DSA she will ‘refrain from going on any political junkets to Israel’ and refuses to answer whether she supports BDS. Lewis George leads the polls in the June 16 Democratic primary and is the DSA’s endorsed candidate to become mayor of the nation’s capital. Her political director is a member of Metro DC DSA.

• Lewis George’s political director shared videos on social media calling Israel ‘evil‘ and endorsing BDS boycotts — making her the most senior staffer aligned with the anti-Israel movement in a leading mayoral campaign.
• Lewis George refused to directly answer whether she supports BDS in a DSA questionnaire, instead stating she supports ‘the right of all people… to use nonviolent strategies like boycotts and calls for divestment.’
• She pledged to DSA she would not attend ‘events focused on obfuscating the realities of occupation or promoting Zionism and apartheid’ — language adopted directly from BDS-aligned frameworks.
• Lewis George is the current polling leader in the D.C. Democratic mayoral primary, which is scheduled for June 16. Winning the primary in D.C. is functionally winning the mayoralty.
• D.C. Mayor has significant influence over a majority-Jewish city government, federal agency relationships, and an annual budget of roughly $20 billion.

The D.C. mayoral race is a proxy test for how far BDS-aligned politics have penetrated the mainstream Democratic pipeline — not as a fringe protest candidacy but as the leading candidate with an institutional campaign infrastructure. If Lewis George wins the June 16 primary, the question is no longer whether BDS advocates can run credible campaigns in major American cities; it's whether they can govern them.

The Iran nuclear talks are on the verge of collapse: Iranian FM says there can be ‘no deal’ if the U.S. insists on discussing the nuclear file, Trump has canceled a trip to his son’s wedding to return to Washington, and a source close to the president says Trump is considering a ‘final’ extensive strike operation after which he would declare victory and end the war. Critically, multiple outlets report Netanyahu has been sidelined from the decision-making process — with Israel excluded from U.S.-Iran negotiations and Netanyahu described as ‘merely a passenger’ in Trump’s Iran strategy. Tulsi Gabbard’s simultaneous resignation as DNI — reportedly forced rather than voluntary — signals a broader intelligence and foreign policy reshuffle at a critical moment.

• Iran’s FM publicly declared no deal is possible if the U.S. insists on discussing ‘the nuclear issue,’ a statement that effectively ends the current negotiating framework as structured.
• A source close to Trump says the president raised the possibility of a ‘final operation‘ — extensive strikes, then a declaration of victory — suggesting a military-resolution path is being actively modeled.
• Ynet and Times of Israel report that Netanyahu has been frozen out of U.S.-Iran discussions, with Israel described as a ‘passenger’ rather than a participant in the decision about its most existential threat.
• Tulsi Gabbard resigns as DNI effective June 30, citing her husband’s illness. Reports indicate she was ‘forced out’ — she had been at odds with more hawkish administration views on Iran.

The combination of Netanyahu's exclusion from Iran negotiations and a possible unilateral U.S. 'declare victory and leave' framework represents the most significant divergence in U.S.-Israel strategic alignment on Iran since the JCPOA. Whether Trump's 'decisive victory' definition is compatible with Israeli security requirements is the central question for allied advocacy.

The New York Post reports that Mayor Zohran Mamdani met multiple times with a radical anti-Israel Islamic cleric who publicly praised Hamas’s October 7 attack as inspiring ‘great change.’ The meetings occurred after the cleric’s public Hamas praise — making them a deliberate relationship, not a casual encounter. The revelation lands as Mamdani continues to signal his distance from the Jewish community: he has announced he will not attend New York’s Israel Day Parade.

• Mamdani met the unnamed sheikh ‘multiple times‘ in New York after the sheikh publicly praised Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre as inspiring ‘great change’ — a documented, deliberate relationship.
• Mamdani has separately confirmed he will not attend the Israel Day Parade this year, extending a pattern of public distancing from pro-Israel Jewish institutions since taking office.
• The story arrives as Mamdani’s governing agenda in New York City increasingly intersects with his foreign policy posture — creating a durable liability for relationships with ICAN-aligned Jewish constituencies.

The question is whether Mamdani's pre-election radical associations will have governing consequences — or whether the Jewish community in New York has already moved to accommodation. The sheikh meeting, combined with the Israel Day Parade refusal, constitutes a pattern: Mamdani is not moderating in office.

The DCCC is launching a $34,000 ad buy against Maureen Galindo, the Democratic runoff candidate in Texas who called for internment camps for ‘American Zionists,’ branding her ‘MAGA Maureen’ ahead of the May 26 runoff. The spending signals that national Democrats have calculated that nominating Galindo would be a liability — but $34K against an antisemitic candidate in the final days is a notably small investment for a party that claims the issue matters.

• DCCC is spending $34,000 on ads against Galindo — a last-minute buy that frames her as a Republican-backed plant (‘MAGA Maureen’) rather than leading with her antisemitic ‘Zionist internment camps’ comments directly.
• The runoff is Tuesday, May 26 — four days away — meaning the DCCC is acting after weeks of silence on a candidate whose antisemitic remarks were public.
• Axios reports the DCCC had previously called on House Republican leadership to ‘immediately cease propping up’ Galindo and condemn her comments — suggesting GOP money is also flowing into this race.

A $34K spend with four days to go is the floor of political accountability, not the ceiling. The story of the Galindo race is how long the DCCC waited — and what it signals about the threshold at which national Democrats will oppose antisemitic candidates in their own ranks.