When Muriel Bowser took office Jan. 2, 2015, as mayor of the District of Columbia, nobody had yet heard of Black Lives Matter, Covid-19, DOGE or AI. Donald Trump’s entry into the race for president was still half a year away, and for most people, ICE still meant water that had frozen.

“It’s a new day in Washington – a fresh start for all of our families that call DC home,” Bowser declared that morning before a crowd of 10,000. “I ran for mayor not for the kicks or to see my name in lights, but because I understand the great responsibility of leading this city at this time—a time both rich with prosperity and rife with inequality.”

Over the last 11 years in office, Bowser, 53, has guided the nation’s capital through one crisis after another: the deadly Blizzard of 2016; the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown; violent protests following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis; the storming of the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; the Capital Jewish Museum shooting in May 2025, and the federal government’s August 2025 takeover of the DC Metropolitan Police Department.

In the latest crisis, Bowser declared a public emergency Feb. 18 after part of a major DC Water sewage pipeline collapsed, flooding the Potomac River with roughly 234 million gallons of wastewater. She also asked the Trump administration for a presidential disaster declaration, which would free up federal tax dollars to reimburse the DC government for all spill and recovery expenses.

Recently, Bowser decided enough was enough. Last November, the three-term mayor announced she would not run for a fourth term in 2026.

In an interview last week with The Washington Diplomat, Bowser ruled out a future in politics.

“Washington is a national stage, and I like the stage. I have had so many great experiences and people to call on. But I’ve given my life to public service,” she said, declining to hint what might be next in her career.

Bowser was born in 1972, more than a year before passage of the 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which among other things allows DC residents to elect their own mayor and district council. Bowser is the eighth mayor elected under the current system.

Today, the 68-square-mile District is home to nearly 180 embassies and about 720,000 residents, making it the 22nd-largest city in the United States—just behind Oklahoma City and slightly ahead of Nashville. But its importance is, of course, far out of proportion to its population alone.

As the nation’s capital, Washington boasts more embassies than any city on Earth. And the size of its diplomatic corps is outranked in the US only by New York, home to the United Nations.

Interestingly, Bowser has been in office longer than all but five DC-based foreign ambassadors: Monaco’s Maguy Maccario Doyle, Palau’s Hersey Kyota, Rwanda’s Mathilde Mukantabana, Turkmenistan’s Meret Orazov, and Yousif Al-Otaiba of the United Arab Emirates.

On Jan. 29, Bowser participated in the 2026 Sports Diplomacy Forum hosted by the Meridian International Center. Joining her on the panel were Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, Missouri, and Dilpreet Sidhu, Los Angeles deputy mayor of international affairs.

And on Feb. 11, Bowser hosted an annual reception for Washington-based diplomats attended by politicians, DC business executives and ambassadors from more than a dozen countries including the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Ireland, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, Panama, Spain, Tanzania and Thailand.

“We have a kind of state-to-state role,” she explained. “Ambassadors will come in and meet with me as the mayor of the nation’s capital, and when we’re in other countries, we similarly will call on embassies as our point of contact. But they’re also my constituents. I like to tell them that when they’re in DC, I’m their mayor too. Their staff lives here, and their kids go to our schools. They have property here that sometimes needs support. Oftentimes, we will host them and tell them about how our government operates.”

Another annual tradition is the Winter Meeting of the US Conference of Mayors, a nonpartisan organization representing cities with populations of 30,000 or more.

“Something we’re very proud of that I started when I first became mayor is the convening of ambassadors during the US Conference of Mayors meeting,” she said. “For the last 12 years, some 300 mayors show up at one of the ambassador residences. Those ambassadors are here, obviously to work with the administration and Congress, but they’re also here to work with the American people. We’re honored to have created this convening and to keep it going this long.”

Bowser singled out several former ambassadors for special mention, including Britain’s Dame Karen Pierce and Ukraine’s Oksana Markarova. At last count, 42 ambassadors representing their countries on Embassy Row are women—the highest number in history.

Bowser said her office has a particularly close relationship with Japanese Ambassador Shigeo Yamada, in large part thanks to the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which this year is scheduled to take place from March 20 to April 12.

“Mayor Bowser has been an invaluable partner in strengthening Japan-US ties,” Ambassador Yamada wrote in a statement to The Washington Diplomat.

“I am deeply grateful for her steadfast support of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which celebrates our enduring friendship. A personal highlight remains our ride together in the festival parade’s open-top car. As we gift an additional 250 cherry trees to commemorate the US 250th anniversary, I look forward to celebrating this special milestone together with her again.”

Sometimes, things don’t go smoothly. Bowser has seen her share of crises, ranging from the Jan. 6, 2021, attempted takeover of the US Capitol to the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers on May 21, 2025, during a reception at the Capital Jewish Museum, after which Bowser said she “had the unfortunate task” of talking to Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States.

“There have also been protests at embassies,” she said. “The ambassadors and their staff are constituents, so we’re always trying to be supportive. They know they can call on me anytime. I’ll host them here in my office to make sure they have what they need.”

Bowser said among her priorities in her last year in office is responding to economic changes following massive layoffs ordered by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“How do we keep our workers here, and how do we get them reconnected to well-paying jobs?”  she said. “Our job is the same, no matter who the president is—and that is to explain how the federal government can help us, and of course advocate for statehood. And that’s been our approach with this president too.”

Bowser took credit for having brought down DC’s notoriously high homicide rate. In 2025, the District recorded 127 homicides, down 32% from 187 in 2024 and 274 the year before. The Washington Post, citing municipal data, said there were also fewer shootings, robberies, carjackings and instances of sexual abuse last year.

“It has nothing to do with the National Guard,” she said. “I think the federal government is doing its job in prosecuting crime. In addition, we have done a lot of things to change the law, like holding violent criminals accountable.”

Asked about her legacy as mayor, Bowser reflected a bit.

“I think people will say that she did what she said she was going to do. She kept her promises,” Bowser said. “We’ve delivered for all eight wards. We’ve kept our teams here. We’ve protected home rule, and every Washingtonian has gotten a fair shot.”

Victor Shiblie contributed to this story.