Having credentials as an activist, legislator, and "hero" in a hostage crisis, as well as an early endorsement from the Washington Post,[REF] Barry was elected as mayor after Walter Washington, the district's first mayor, fell out of political favor in the 1978 election.
In the Democratic primary-the real contest in the heavily Democratic, black-majority city-Barry ran with the campaign slogan "Take a Stand" and the promise to improve the "bumbling and bungling" Washington administration.