The front-runner in the district’s attorney general race, who boasts experience as a trial attorney and spending more than a decade on the D.C. Council, is ineligible to appear on the ballot due to years of inactivity as a lawyer.

The decision from the Washington, D.C., Board of Elections on Monday deals a blow to Councilman Kenyan McDuffie, who had been outraising his opponents in the Democratic primary race and garnered several high-profile endorsements. The move also boosts challenger Bruce Spiva, a former Perkins Coie partner who filed a challenge claiming McDuffie did not meet the minimum requirements by not being “actively engaged” as a D.C. attorney for at least five of the past 10 years.