After a career in public service, Kinney Zalesne didn’t intend to run for elected office. But that is what she’s doing, seeking to represent the District of Columbia in what the longtime resident deems a time of urgency.
The writer and political strategist filed to run as a Democratic challenger to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has represented D.C. since 1991.
“I didn’t really aspire to run for office, but I’m just so deeply worried about what’s happening to America,” Zalesne told Washington Jewish Week.
Congressional delegates like Norton have the right to debate on the House floor, introduce bills, educate members of Congress and vote in committees, serving as a voice for their constituents on national issues. Zalesne is no stranger to politics and campaigns.
“I’ve been in and around politics for a long time,” she said. “I worked in the Clinton White House, I was counsel to Janet Reno at the U.S. Justice Department, I ran a nonprofit here in Adams Morgan that helped thousands of D.C. kids become the first in their family to go to college.”
The Yale and Harvard Law School graduate worked as a strategist for Bill Clinton’s and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns in 1996 and 2008, respectively, according to Zalesne’s campaign website.
She served as deputy national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee from November 2022 to July 2025 and the co-chair of Women for Kamala Harris in 2024.
“When we lost the presidential election, I tried for a while to nudge from the outside and help shape issues or arguments,” Zalesne said. “But I realized things are getting worse, not better, and that no one is coming to save us, and we have to be the leaders we wish we had.”
That realization prompted her decision to run for office.
“D.C. is on the front lines — we feel it more intensely in this capital city than, I think, elsewhere in the nation because we’re more vulnerable,” Zalesne said. “We don’t have the same state-level protections that the rest of America has.”
Having raised four kids in Washington, the city is close to her heart. Her policy priorities include D.C. autonomy, affordability and safety. “From budget autonomy all the way to [D.C.] statehood … we need to make decisions for our own city,” she said.
Zalesne wants to provide affordable housing, prevent crime and battle inflation, but said she wants to think out of the box in terms of her role.
“On the Hill as delegate, I can … be a very big part of the shaping and framing of issues and debate on Capitol Hill,” Zalesne said. “I also have a vision for the role as being powerful beyond that. I think the delegate role is for a national convener, a national coalition builder who can bring together the national business, foundation, nonprofit communities, all the best resources, ideas, talent, innovation, and bring that to D.C.”
Her previous roles — including Microsoft executive and nonprofit leader — allowed Zalesne to bring people together over the past three decades. She is a founding board member of the nonprofit Heart of a Nation, which teaches leadership skills to young Americans, Israelis and Palestinians.
Zalesne’s Jewish background informs her approach to policy.
“For me, Jewish values have always driven a sense about access to opportunity, fairness, justice and a long-term plan for people to live together safely and in harmony even as they disagree and express their differences,” she said.
Zalesne said she has dedicated her career to “expanding access and building power for more and more people” so that they all feel invested in society. Failure to do so can be dangerous, according to Zalesne.
“When [people] don’t feel that society works for them, they tend to look for scapegoats, and it’s almost always the Jews,” she said. “So if we aren’t proactively building, protecting and sustaining a society where everybody feels like it works for them, then minorities will always be in danger.”
She noted the “terrifying” increase in antisemitism on both sides of the political aisle and the sharp decline in Jewish representation in the House of Representatives since 2008.
“Part of the reason I’m running is to stand up against all of that hatred and the rising antisemitism and say, ‘No, you will not take over America,’” Zalesne said. “Nobody who cares about the future of democracy can afford to be a bystander right now and this is my way of stepping up and trying to do my part to save the city and the country that I deeply love.”
She also plans to publicly support Israel and its ongoing relationship with the U.S. “Israel is the strongest ally in the region, and because that strong relationship is in the U.S. national security interest, we here in D.C. will not be safe if the U.S.-Israel relationship is compromised,” she said.
Zalesne sees commonalities between the Jewish community and the D.C. community.
“We are both small but mighty,” she said. “We have a great deal to contribute, but not if we’re mistreated. … We need the respect and dignity we’re entitled to as citizens and as contributors and leaders.
“I see a lot of parallels, and I want to fight for D.C. as much as I have always fought for the Jewish community.”
