An "urban republican" comes before the Trump City Council, scorning the DC Democrat.

The words "Republican" or "GOP" do not appear anywhere on the flyer he left on porches around Capitol Hill – once traveled 30 miles in a weekend. "Proud member of a bipartisan wedding" is as close as possible. "Socially progressive and fiscally responsible"

"I do not feel the need to promote a party line," said Bekesha, especially in a neighborhood where only 7,500 of the 79,000 voters are Republicans.

Bekesha is one of three GOP candidates on the city's ballot. On November 6, Ralph Chittams, former DC GOP Vice President of the GOP, challenges senior board member Elissa Silverman (I) and Nelson Rimensnyder against Eleanor Holmes Norton. (D) be a member of the District Non-Voting Convention. The party has not had an election winner since Carol Schwartz, a long-time General Councilor, stepped down in 2009.

[D.C. mayor rallies for Reeder in effort to oust Silverman]

Bekesha's republicanism is mainly federal and fiscal. He wants the national government to do less, and he wants the local government to spend less, or at least not spend more than it should spend. On recent local issues, he supported the board's repeal of the salary hike imposed on restaurant waiters, and he opposes the decision to restrict Airbnb-style rentals in the city. Above all, he thinks that the entire city government would benefit from a little scrutiny of both parties.

"There is no responsibility with a party in power," he said.

Some of his Republican compatriots pushed him to kiss the president, he said. He responds that his arm's length posture is not only strategic, it is personal. He has considered leaving the party since Trump won the nomination and then the White House. If the GOP continues to transform itself into a Trumpian institution, it says it still can.

"But I'm not ready to give up for the moment," he said.

GOP Republican President Jose Cunningham said he is accepting Republican Bekesha's non-Republican campaign, even though he is a strong supporter of Trump himself.

"From my point of view, he's running a good campaign for his neighborhood," Cunningham said. "He's doing the right things."

Members of his party who hate Trump and have closed their portfolios are a bigger puzzle for Cunningham. Even though he saw the craze for the president to grow at GOP rallies across the country, Cunningham returns home in search of Washington Republicans who still treat Trump with disdain.

"It's a city where, very early, many Republicans decided to become ever-deceiving," Cunningham said.

The party coffers have suffered. Campaign funding documents indicate that the party raised more than $ 370,000 in 2015 and 2016, but raised just over $ 240,000, or about half the number of donors, at the end of the year. during the last two years.

"Some of them say they do not give in with this incumbent president," Cunningham said.

Unlike Bekesha, Chittams works as a declared conservative.

"REPUBLICAN" was dropped from the top of the booklet he was distributing at the H Street Festival. In particular, he said that black voters – Chittams is an African-American minister – take into account his message of personal responsibility and even his vocal support for Trump.

"I think now, people are realizing the failure of the single-party rule in this city," Chittams said.

At a recent forum, a man approached him to say that he agreed with all the arguments put forward by Chittams.

"Then he said," But I still can not vote because you're Republican, "he said." Some people are still locked in hyper-partisanship. "

Bekesha said only two voters had harangued him for belonging to the GOP, one of them apart from a polling place on the day of the primary elections. Immediately, a volunteer from Allen, the Democrat against whom Bekesha introduced himself, approached to apologize for the breakup of the voter.

"In fact, all this experience has been extremely positive," he said. "I grew up both personally and professionally."

When he goes door to door, the few voters who do not push him back as fast as possible want to talk about the future of RFK Stadium, the use of condoms on H Street or the other. a recent pair of shootings near D Street. . It is only the journalists, he said, who ask questions on current issues like Obamacare (he is opposed to this becoming law, but thinks it would be too much disturbing to be repealed) or Brett M. Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court (He supported Kavanaugh up to the assault allegations and the judge's "emotional arousal" at the final hearing).

Only reporters asked about his employer, Judicial Watch, a conservative group that was a legal thorn alongside the Clinton administration. Bekesha, A lawyer who continues to review Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was a secretary of state, explained that her motivation to file countless requests under the Freedom of Information Act imposed the type of transparency that any administration should show. He points out that Judicial Watch has been a source of inconvenience for white Democratic and Republican homes.

"On transparency, Obama was probably not worse than Bush," he said. "And the Trump administration is definitely not better, probably worse."

He says he has a way to win by eliminating almost every one of the 7,500 registered Republicans in Ward 6 and attracting a good chunk of his 14,000 independents. He also said he would consider it a triumph to be the first GOP candidate to win 15% of the vote in the neighborhood.

This may depend on the number of Democrats willing to control a partisan nauseating reflex that is a trigger of hair at the moment.

Becca Damante, 23, a resident of Ward 6, listened with interest while Bekesha spoke of community policing and maintaining schools under the mayor's control. A democrat, she thanked him, accepted a pamphlet and, outside of his audience, refused.

"I do not have a lot of respect for the Republican party at the moment," she said.

Peter Jamison contributed to this report.