Get our free newsletter
Candidate: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, seeking re-election to Congress
Colors: Red, white, blue
Graphic elements: Abstract American flag
Slogan: OUR CHAMPION Bringing D.C. Jobs/Demanding D.C.’s Vote
Spotted: Georgia Avenue NW and Randolph Street NW
Riffs on the District’s stars-and-stripes flag are popular with city candidates, but as Washington’s only federal official, Holmes Norton paints on a national canvas with the US version. But it is an unusually childlike rendering, stars reduced to abstract squiggles and stripes tapering off into meandering strokes. It’s as if our woman in Congress is trying to say that the notion of statehood represented by the 50 stars is an imperfect one, and that the sovereignty project of the 13 colonies remains unfinished business.
Photo by Mike Madden