An 18-year-old high school senior entered the race for Ward 3’s seat on the D.C. Council on March 9 and is one of several candidates seeking to replace incumbent Mary Cheh, who announced she would not seek reelection in February.

Henry Cohen, a student at Jackson-Reed High School, previously known as Woodrow Wilson High School, is the youngest candidate in this year’s Council elections. If elected, Cohen would become the youngest elected Councilmember in D.C. history. Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto (LAW ’17) currently holds that distinction after having been elected at the age of 28 in 2020.

The Hoya sat down with Cohen on March 22 to discuss the significance of his campaign, his hopes if elected and the importance of younger voices in politics.

Cohen decided to run for Ward 3 Councilmember to show the District that student voices matter and should receive more attention and value.

“Coming of age, especially in the Trump era, has shown me that there’s a lot of momentum for change in younger people, yet that momentum has yet to translate to the halls of power,” Cohen said in an interview with The Hoya. “For so long in this city, students, especially, are voices that have been ignored. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can change it.”

In order to be eligible to run in the June 21 Democratic primary, candidates had to submit 250 signatures from eligible registered Democrats residing in Ward 3 by March 23. Cohen garnered 451 signatures, 50 of which came from students. According to Cohen, some of those signatures may be invalidated through the challenge process, but he has enough excess signatures to appear on the ballot.

Cohen was inspired to run for office after the roof of his high school started leaking, prompting his friends to urge him to run for D.C. Council to fix the leaky roof. 

“I got so much support from students, people who I’m friends with, and people who I’m not, people I don’t really know, who wanted to have this kind of voice, or thought it would be a cool thing for someone running for council at Jackson-Reed,” Cohen said. “I think that Jackson-Reed is excited to have a voice of its own. It’s been an honor to see the public support from the Wilson community.”

While Cohen understands that many voters may consider him unqualified given his age, he believes his campaign is a success in and of itself for younger voices.

“The point of this campaign for me was really to make some noise for a lot of these issues,” Cohen said. “Whether or not we win the most votes, I think that this campaign is won or lost in the change that we actually get. I’m incredibly optimistic that a lot of these things are going to get done because we’ve been seeing for the first time in this city this level of support from students.”

While Cohen said he expected negative responses to his campaign because of his age, he was surprised by the discouraging response he received from Mayor Muriel Bowser (D).

“The first words out of her mouth were, ‘Why aren’t you running for ANC?’” Cohen said. “Then she said, ‘You need to be taking this seriously.’ She didn’t think that an 18-year-old could really run a campaign like this. To have the mayor say that to a young kid trying to get involved in politics is really fascinating to me. I’m not going to back down from that fight.”

Bowser declined The Hoya’s request for comment. 

According to Cohen, many of his friends and classmates registered to vote as a result of his candidacy and advocacy.

Annabelle Harbold, another senior at Jackson-Reed, said Cohen’s campaign exemplifies the influence teenagers in the District can have.

“Henry has really shown us that youth in D.C. do have a voice, it’s often easy to think that there isn’t much you can do as a young person to impact your community but he has demonstrated to us what is possible,” Harbold wrote to The Hoya. “He has really mobilized the students at Wilson to get involved in our democracy. I’m confident that regardless of the results of the Council election student voter turnout will skyrocket due to his efforts.”

Despite the pushback he received, Cohen said he is determined to continue fighting for youth participation in politics.

“As far as I know, I’m the first high school student to run for office in D.C., but I’m not going to be the last, and I shouldn’t be the last,” Cohen said. “I hope that somebody is watching right now thinking ‘that is going to be me in a few years.’ I think that we’ve shown that it’s possible.”