After three terms and a decade-plus in office, DC mayor Muriel Bowser is heading for the exit. What will she do next? Bowser has been vague, telling one local TV channel, “I’m a young mayor, so I have another 20 years to work and do something entirely different.” The city has had six previous mayors since the Home Rule Act was passed in 1973. Here’s a look at what they’ve done after leaving office.
Walter Washington
DC’s first true mayor, Washington lost his reelection bid in 1979 to Marion Barry. Washington became a partner at the law firm Burns, Jackson, Miller & Summit and opened its DC office. He retired in the mid-1990s and died in 2003 at age 88.
Marion Barry
The “mayor for life” never really retired. His first three terms ran from 1979 to 1991, and he decided not to run again after his arrest for drug possession. When he was released from prison in 1992, Barry mounted a comeback, first becoming Ward 8’s council member, then returning to the mayor’s office from 1995 to 1999. He later went back to the DC Council, again representing Ward 8, until his death in 2014.
Sharon Pratt
Formerly Sharon Pratt Kelly, she served between Barry’s two mayoral terms, losing to him in 1994. A few years later, she founded Pratt Consulting, which works with government agencies and NGOs on communication, technology, and emergency-management plans. Her company contracted with the DC Department of Health to be the city’s main liaison with the Department of Homeland Security in the 2000s.
Anthony Williams
The two-term mayor departed in 2006 and went on to hold various roles in the city’s finance, policy, and legal worlds. He has now been executive director of the Federal City Council, a highly influential business-interests group, for more than a decade.
Adrian Fenty
After losing to Vincent Gray in 2010, Fenty took on a variety of gigs. He did the public speaking circuit, became an adviser and outside counsel to a few government consultancies and law firms, and has worked as an adviser at venture-capital giant Andreessen Horowitz. He currently is business development director at the law firm Perkins Coie.
Vincent C. Gray
Gray, who was chairman of the DC Council before becoming mayor, returned to the council after Bowser beat him in 2014. He served two terms representing Ward 7 and, amid declining health, retired in early 2025.
This article appears in the May 2026 issue of Washingtonian.
Ike Allen covers politics, food, culture, and transportation in DC and writes the monthly Hidden Eats column for the magazine. He grew up in DC.
