Talib Karim Muhammad

Engineer. Attorney. Mentor.

Talib Karim Muhammad is more than a candidate; he is a husband, a father, and a dedicated servant of the District. His story is one of service—from the classroom to the boardroom, and from the community center to the halls of Congress.

A Legacy of Service & Activism: Talib’s story begins with the legacy of his parents, who met right here in Washington, D.C. in 1968 as activists fighting for justice. That spirit of service runs deep:

Educator & Mentor: Talib served as an assistant math teacher at Fletcher Johnson Middle School and has spent over a decade mentoring youth through STEM4US! and the Kappa Alpha Psi Guide Right program.
Dedicated Parent: He is an active member of the Fathers Club at his daughter's school and served on the Parents Club for both Banneker High School and the Lowell School.
Veteran: Talib served his country with honor and brings that same discipline to his fight for DC statehood.

A Lifetime of Service to the District: For over 35 years, Talib has remained an unbroken fixture in the life of the District—serving D.C. residents as an Attorney, Engineer, and Youth Mentor. While he is not a member of the current political elite, Talib’s professional record distinguishes him as the most seasoned and qualified candidate in the race. He brings high-level leadership experience from every branch of District government and has lived or worked in every Ward in the city—a perspective that prepares him to hit the ground running on Day One.

The Origin of a Fighter: Government & Legal Leadership: Talib’s academic career was launched at the United States Air Force Academy with dreams of reaching the stars as an astronaut. After facing and overcoming systemic bias at the Academy, Talib brought his talents home to Howard University, where he earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a Juris Doctor (J.D.). Upon graduation, his legal precision was recognized early when he was selected for the prestigious Legal Honors Attorney Program at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

D.C. Government: Managing the People’s Resources: Talib understands the "Math of D.C." because he has managed it at the highest levels.

Executive Leadership: Served as Chief of Staff for the District’s largest government agency, managing the critical funds that provide healthcare for low-income, immigrant, and elderly residents.
Legislative & Mayoral Strategy: Served as Counsel to the Special D.C. Council Committee on Statehood and as Special Counsel to Mayor Vincent Gray, navigating the complex legal landscape of the Wilson Building.

Federal Service: Accountability & National Security: Talib has fought for transparency and efficiency on the national stage:

Congressional Impact: Served as Chief Counsel to the legendary Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, former Chair of the House Crime Subcommittee.
Veteran Advocacy: As Senior Counsel to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Talib led the critical mission to automate and digitize veteran benefit claims, bringing engineering precision to the federal bureaucracy.
Transparency: Served on the Freedom of Information (FOIA) team at the Department of the Interior, ensuring the nation's natural resources remained accountable to public scrutiny.

Legal, Judicial, & Media Roots: The Judicial Lens: Served on the legal support staff for Judge Kaye Christian, gaining early, foundational insight into the necessity of a fair and equitable justice system.

The Storyteller: Before making policy, Talib covered it. He served as a reporter for several local newspapers and prominent media outlets, including WAMU, giving him a unique perspective on the lived realities of D.C. residents.

Community & Brotherhood: Talib remains deeply connected to the social fabric of the District as a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and Sigma Delta Tau Legal Fraternity.

Media & Community:

The Storyteller: Before making policy, Talib covered it. He served as a reporter for several local newspapers and media outlets, including the Washington Informer, Afro American, and WAMU.
Memberships: He is a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and Sigma Delta Tau.

TOUGH LOVE

A Personal Narrative

Transparency & Lessons Learned

Family Court: After experiencing how the current system drains families of emotional and financial resources (~$100k+), Talib advocates for a Family Protection System focused on mediation first.
Divorce & Recovery: Avoiding pain deepens it. Healing comes through accountability and purpose. We will launch "Intimacy Re-Engineered" to teach emotional strength and healthy relationships.
Discipline vs. Crime: D.C. criminalizes parenting while real violence roams. We need to protect reasonable discipline and launch a D.C. Boys Academy for structure and mentoring.
Conscience Over Party: A lifelong Democrat who speaks truth to power—even against his own party leaders—on issues of human rights and justice.

Transparency & Lessons Learned

While the current political elites including members of the Council who are contenders for Mayor are apparently comfortable with hiding the facts about crime in order to justify giving billions of tax payer money to billionaire sports owners, Talib believes in transparency. As such, he’s coming clean with the most challenging experiences he’s faced in life and the lessons he’s learned.

Firsthand Experience: Dismantling the Family Court to Criminal Court Pipeline

Talib’s commitment to reform is born from personal experience. Nearly 20 years ago, shortly after the birth of his only son, Talib and his first wife navigated a deeply painful divorce. While he acknowledges the mistakes made during that difficult season, the true failure he witnessed was a legal system that prioritized conflict over resolution.

Rather than being assisted by the court, the family was divided by it. The process forced both parents to spend over $100,000 each in legal fees—wealth that was siphoned away from their son’s future. The result was a tragic loss of time and resources that should have been invested in their child’s education and well-being.

Turning Pain into Policy Through this struggle and his subsequent work as an attorney, Talib has seen firsthand how the current system systematically removes fathers from the home. This creates a "pipeline" where children, deprived of stable parental dynamics, are exposed to social and emotional challenges that too often lead to juvenile and criminal justice involvement.

As Mayor, Talib will lead a "Radical but Common Sense" overhaul of these systems:

Mediation First: Transitioning from an adversarial "Family Court" to a Family Protection System that prioritizes reconciliation and mediation over litigation.
Ending Legal Limbo: Repealing the mandatory one-year separation and requirement for parents involved in Civil Protection Orders, which currently keeps families trapped in a high-cost, high-stress cycle of legal limbo.
Protecting the Village: Replacing "policing parents" with a Family Training and Development Agency to coach families through crisis rather than criminalizing them.

Fixing the Broken Child Support System
The current child support system is antiquated. I plan to make paying child support as easy as using Cash App. Currently, if funds cannot be deducted within the first five days of the month, the payer must mail a payment. This ignores the reality for many D.C. residents; the unemployment rate for Black men in the District is approximately 7.7%, nearly double that of white residents.

Even if a parent lacks funds at the start of the month, they may have them by the end. The system should front the money to mothers to ensure the child’s stability and collect it from fathers as they earn. Alternatively, custodial parents could request funds as needed from the government via our UBI app, moving the burden of collection off the family and onto the state.

Divorce, Recovery, and "Make DC Fit"
While navigating his divorce, Talib found himself coping with emotional pain through unhealthy relationships. He acknowledges the pain this caused others and seeks forgiveness from those he harmed and from his Lord every day.

As Mayor, the new Department of Family Training and Development will provide subsidized online mental health coaching. We will also discourage the use of hard narcotics in favor of homeopathic vitamins, yoga therapy, and "boot camp" style training. Under a Muhammad Administration, D.C. will be the fittest state in the nation.

Discipline vs. Crime
As a graduate of a military academy, he believes more youth should have access to the discipline he experienced from his parents and upperclassmen at the Air Force Academy. Currently, D.C. criminalizes parenting while real violence goes unchecked. We will protect reasonable discipline and launch a D.C. Boys Academy for structure and mentoring.

Conscience Over Party
Talib has been involved in Democratic politics since the 1970s, advising candidates from Clinton to Biden. However, in the last election, he could not in good conscience support the Democratic nominee due to the party's support for the conflict in Gaza.

Talib briefly became an Independent and voted against his own party, to help end the violence. He, like many, is disappointed that the administration has abandoned its "America First" agenda, diverting tax dollars to military occupations by Israel in Palestine and foreign engagements in Yemen, Syria, and Nigeria, including recent actions in Venezuela. This money has been robbed from much-needed domestic investment in our youth, families, and small businesses—such as DC's restaurants, which recently saw a record number of closures.

Talib does not believe in party labels; he looks at a person's actions. For example, it's ironic that the self-described Democratic socialist running for Mayor voted twice to hand over hundreds of millions to sports billionaires while our neighborhoods struggle. That's why Talib, while pro-labor, pro-immigrant, and pro-civil liberties, does not call himself a socialist. Instead, Talib is willing to work with Republicans, Independents, and Democrats—and anyone else—who supports making DC safe, affordable, and free.

Roots and Residency
Talib’s D.C. roots run deep; his parents met as civil rights activists on the National Mall, and his grandmother worked here until he was in law school at Howard. Talib has lived in Wards 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 over the last 35 years. Although he moved out of the District over a decade ago, he was encouraged to return in the fall of 2025 to lead the movement to change D.C. politics. He moved back to D.C. by the required residency deadline to qualify for the upcoming elections.

The People’s Mayor
Talib is not the wealthiest candidate running for Mayor, and he wears that as a badge of honor. Despite his credentials as a Howard-trained engineer and attorney, he has faced the same economic volatility as many Washingtonians.

"I’ve seen the District’s economy from the boardroom as a legal advisor to the Mayor and Chief of Staff of DC’s largest agency as well as from the stockroom as an Amazon worker. To keep food on my family’s table during periods of underemployment, I worked the 4:00 AM shift at Whole Foods. I know exactly what it’s like to clock in for a multi-billion dollar giant like Amazon while still struggling to keep up with D.C.’s rising cost of living."

Talib knows firsthand the plight of the two-thirds of District workers who must work 2–3 jobs to make ends meet. As Mayor, he will use his skills as a software developer to lead the "County-City" in re-engineering how D.C. residents find and retain jobs. He plans to restructure the Department of Employment Services into a new Department of Workforce Development, powered by an app that tracks every available job and worker in D.C. and ensures no position remains vacant for longer than 30 days.