Robert White thanks supporters after resigning from the DC Council ahead of midterm election

D.C. Council member Robert White has officially resigned his seat ahead of Tuesday’s election, in which he is a candidate to be the District’s delegate to Congress.

“Today, after 10 years of representing my hometown of Washington, D.C., I have submitted my resignation effective today. I want to make sure that there’s nothing that stands between or appears to stand between this day and the next mission, “White addressed supporters outside the Wilson Building Monday afternoon.

White resigned due to a decades-old law that prohibits a current officeholder from being elected to the delegate’s seat. He repeated that he disagrees that he had to resign, and said he’ll overturn the law if he wins.

“I will change this law because it wasn’t intended for the council and it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

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White announced his candidacy after D.C.’s long-term delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who held the seat for 45 years, announced she would not run again.

The 1970 law has not been brought up as an issue in previous D.C. delegate elections. Norton was a full-time law professor when she was first elected in 1990.

Her predecessor, Walter Fauntroy, was the first D.C. delegate. When he won his first election in 1971, Fauntroy was a pastor and civil rights activist.

In thanking his supporters, White ran down a list of accomplishments he was proud of, including legislation that restored voting rights for incarcerated people, a mentoring program for D.C. youth, an abortion rights bill and spearheading an effort to buy a building that was important to the city’s Go-Go Music heritage, which is now a museum.

“I hope you have always felt that I have tried to serve not by holding on to the power that you gave me but by putting it to work for you.”

WTOP’s Tracy Johnke contributed to this story.

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