Currently holds the office of U.S. House of Representatives Shadow Member - District of Columbia until January 3, 2027.
Candidate for District of Columbia Council - At Large in 2026 DC Primary Election.
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Get StartedAs a Councilmember, Oye will advance cultural equity by ensuring arts funding and policy reflect the full diversity of DC. He will support fair pay, stable funding, and affordable space for artists and cultural workers, especially those rooted in historically excluded communities. He will protect neighborhood based cultural institutions and cultural heritage from displacement. Learn more
Oye is a peacebuilder who has spent his career using art, culture, and dialogue to reduce isolation, build trust, and bring people together across divides. He understands that art is not decoration. It is the infrastructure for democracy. Learn more
Oye fights for a community-first approach to safety that invests in people before punishment. As a pharmacist and elected neighborhood official, he understands that violence is closely tied to trauma, untreated mental illness, housing instability, and lack of opportunity. As a Councilmember, he will expand violence interruption programs, youth employment, and community-based prevention, and ensure mental health emergencies are handled by trained responders rather than armed officers whenever possible. Learn more
Oye will oppose expansions of pretrial detention, reject efforts to create new crimes or longer sentences that do not improve safety. He will also increase oversight of MPD and demand transparency about who MPD partners with, whether other jurisdictions, private corporations, or foreign entities, including any technology, training, or surveillance relationships. Learn more
He will oppose youth curfews, school policing, and expanded surveillance that criminalize young people. Learn more
He will fight to expand afterschool and late night youth spaces, invest in violence interruption rooted in community trust, and fully fund youth development programs that offer paid work, career exploration, and pathways into union jobs. Learn more
Oye will hold DCPS accountable for carrying out Council mandates, including support for immigrant educators, push governance reforms that restore democratic voice in education, and make UDC tuition free so every DC resident has a real path forward without debt. Learn more
Oye will fight to treat early childhood education as essential public infrastructure. He will fund care and learning from birth-to-three through the per student formula so early education receives stable and predictable support. He will fully fund and permanently protect the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund and expand it to include all early educators, including part time and mixed delivery staff. Learn more
Oye will strengthen neighborhood schools by expanding afterschool programs, investing in community schools that provide tutoring, nutrition, mental health care, and literacy support, and increasing school funding East of the River. Learn more
He will invest in youth and adult literacy programs through schools, libraries, and community based providers. He will remove police from DCPS schools and invest instead in counselors, nurses, and social workers. Learn more
He will raise child care reimbursement rates so providers can meet the real cost of care and ensure families do not spend more than ten percent of their income on child care when the Birth-to-Three Act is fully implemented. Learn more
The District allows new fossil fuel infrastructure that locks residents into higher costs and long-term harm. Funds meant to lower energy bills and improve health have been diverted away from their purpose, delaying progress and breaking trust. Climate change is already affecting daily life, but the response remains uneven, slow, and disconnected from the communities most impacted. Learn more
DC residents continue to live with polluted air, plastic waste, and waterways burdened by decades of neglect. Communities East of the River face higher exposure to heat, flooding, and environmental hazards while receiving fewer protective investments. Children suffer from asthma and respiratory illness linked to unhealthy housing, while public dollars are spent treating illness instead of preventing it. Learn more
As a Councilmember, Oye will fight to fully restore and permanently fund DC Medicaid and the DC Healthcare Alliance so coverage cannot be stripped away again. He will oppose budgets that eliminate care for 25,000 residents and raise Medicaid reimbursement rates so clinics, doctors, and pharmacies can serve patients in their communities. Learn more
Oye will fight to lower prescription drug costs, protect Medicare drug negotiation authority, and reform pharmacy benefit managers that inflate prices. Learn more
Oye will prioritize Black maternal and infant health, expand public clinics that provide care at no cost, and take on pharmacy benefit managers by ending spread pricing and lowering prescription drug costs. He will push for a comprehensive public health response to overdoses and homelessness and protect reproductive and gender affirming care. He supports a universal health care vision that moves DC toward a single payer Medicare for All system. Learn more
DC must confront overdoses with a true public health approach centered on harm reduction, treatment access, housing stability, and continuity of care. Health care must be accessible regardless of income, immigration status, gender identity, or zip code. Learn more
Oye will defend and restore TOPA, including reversing recent rollbacks that stripped protections from small buildings, fully funding the First Right Purchase Program, and passing common-sense reforms that strengthen transparency, fund tenant support organizations, and penalize bad actors. He will expand social housing, community land trusts, and pathways to ownership so long-time renters can build stability and generational wealth, and support public financing tools that keep public dollars circulating locally rather than enriching corporate landlords. Learn more
As a Councilmember, Oye will fight to make housing in the District affordable, stable, and centered on people, not corporations. He will prioritize preservation first, recognizing that protecting existing affordable housing is faster, less expensive, and more effective than rebuilding after units are lost. Oye supports dedicating a significant share of the Housing Production Trust Fund to preservation, including TOPA transactions, nonprofit acquisitions, and limited-equity cooperatives that keep housing affordable long term. Learn more
Oye will restore and fully fund the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), fully fund the Local Rent Supplement Program, and pair assistance with a right to counsel in eviction cases. He will strengthen protections against rent gouging, illegal fees, utility shutoffs, and voucher abuse, and bring aggressive oversight to DCHA and DHCD so the housing system serves tenants, not slumlords or speculative developers. Learn more
Immigrants in DC are being targeted by ICE in schools, workplaces, and homes, often with local police present or complicit, undermining community trust and spreading fear. Federal agents operate with little accountability while families live with the threat of detention, separation, or violence. Language barriers and misinformation keep residents from essential services, and gaps in enforcement allow District systems to be used for surveillance and harm. Without strong oversight and enforcement, sanctuary protections remain fragile, and immigrant families continue to live in fear of the very institutions meant to serve them. Learn more
Oye will enforce the Sanctuary Values Act, end cooperation between District agencies and ICE, and hold agencies accountable when they violate the law. He will expand language access, fund immigrant legal defense, and organize in coalition with labor, civil rights groups, and leaders nationwide to push back against authoritarian interference. Learn more
Oye will fight for a transit first District that centers residents, seniors, families, and people with disabilities. He supports the DMV Moves regional funding plan, which would invest 500 to 600 million annually beginning in FY28 with sustainable growth, and will push Maryland and Virginia to meet DC’s commitment so Metro has reliable long term funding. Learn more
He will work to reduce and eliminate fares, expand bus priority corridors, and invest in safer stations, bus stops, sidewalks, lighting, and accessibility improvements across the District. Oye supports moving traffic and fare enforcement out of MPD into a civilian safety system and will oppose highway expansion that undermines transit reliability and neighborhood safety. Learn more
The District deserves full democratic rights, equal representation, and the power to govern ourselves without congressional interference. That means control over our budget, laws, and public land; respect for voter-approved initiatives; and an end to federal domination of daily life in the District. Learn more
Oye is already doing this work as DC’s elected U.S. Representative. As a Councilmember, he will continue organizing aggressively for DC statehood while defending home rule at every level. He will oppose congressional overrides, protect voter-approved initiatives, and decouple District policy from harmful federal actions when necessary. Learn more
He will fight to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid from federal cuts and privatization, and will work to shield DC residents from harmful federal actions whenever possible. Oye will fully fund the Department of Aging and Community Living, restore and expand meals, transportation, home care, caregiver support, and senior wellness programs, and strengthen Safe at Home so seniors can remain safely in their own homes. Learn more
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