Where Washington D.C. stands in its push for statehood.

By CJ Hanauer

A D.C. flag and an American flag blow violently in the wind next to each other in freedom plaza outside the John A. Wilson building. The same 50 stars have resided on the American flag for the last 63 years, but in the past few decades D.C. has been fighting to become the 51st.

On July 16th, 1790 Thomas Jeffereson, who was advocating for the capital to be in the south, and Alexander Hamilton, who was advocating for it to be in the north, met and agreed upon the location on the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. Taking land from the southern state of Virginia and the Northern state of Maryland, the District of Columbia was born. It was written into the constitution of the United States that D.C. remain a federal district. But recently this has come under fire. 

WHAT IS D.C. STATEHOOD

On March 17th 1987, the first attempt at D.C. Statehood took place through the H.R.1629 bill. This bill would have allowed the State of New Columbia to vote for delegates to hold positions of office and would have admitted it to the Union, becoming the 51st state. The bill was introduced but never voted upon. 

Many bills for D.C. statehood have been introduced in the House of Representatives, but very few have even been voted on. However, on January 3rd of 2019, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced the H.R.51 bill. With the Democrats having a majority in the House, the bill passed with 227 cosponsors, all Democrats. The bill was passed on to the Senate where as of the writing of this article, was never voted out of committee. 

WHY DO PEOPLE WANT IT?

With a population larger than that of Wyoming and Vermont, the District of Columbia does not have any voting representatives in congress. “DC residents lack self-determination and equal federal representation. And the goal of statehood is to find a legal and constitutional remedy to achieve both of those.” Said Paul Strauss, Senator to the District of Columbia. D.C. does have two non-voting delegates. In the House it is Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, and in the Senate Del. Paul Strauss holds the position. This means that roughly 689,545 people living in the United States do not get to be represented when laws are being created, amended and passed. 

Sen. Paul Strauss outside his office posing in front of a D.C. flag with the unofficial slogan of  the push for D.C. statehood on it.

Another subfactor to this – a fact that often gets overlooked – is that roughly 44.2% of D.C.’s population identifies as black or African-American. Historically, voices of color, particularly those of black people, have been silenced and ignored. With such a large percentage of the population identifying as black or African-American, a large portion of voices of color are not being represented in the system that has at many times throughout history been bent on suppressing and controlling them. 

Mural by Lisa Marie Thalhammer in 16th Street Heights.

“We have a plurality of African-Americans, we’re majority people of color, and even of the remainder of those citizens, who might be for lack of a better word: white folks, they’re not the kind of white people that are particularly popular within certain segments of the republican party. We tend to have a larger than average gay population, we tend to have one of the highest percentages of jewish people and other minorities … So when these white supremacists are marching in DC with Nazi flags and Confederate flags and talking about white power, they’re not necessarily talking about your typical resident of Dupont Circle or Tenlytown either” said Strauss in reference to the insurrection on the capital on January 6th 2021.

Giving D.C. residents a voice in congress may not seem like a big deal or have a big impact, but in recent times, lots of bills have come down to extremely close votes. If D.C. gains statehood it will be awarded two Senators like every other state, and one House member based on population size. Considering D.C.’s population is overwhelmingly Democratic, bills benefiting democratic ideals are more likely to pass while those benefiting conservative ideals are not. This may most likely also make it easier for Democrats to gain a majority in either congressional wing. This is a large reason many Republicans are against D.C. statehood. 

Mural by Lisa Marie Thalhammer at the Sherwood Recreation Center in Northeast.

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION

It is well known that Washington D.C. has one of the highest income taxes in the country. According to The Tax Foundation, D.C.’s 10.75% income tax rate ties with New Jersey for the fourth highest out of all 50 states plus the district. But this isn’t just some case of a state with high income taxes.

The 10 states (including D.C.) with the highest income tax per capita.

Way back during the revolutionary war, the colonies that would later become the United States were under the rule of the British. Americans protested under the slogan “no taxation without representation” in response to being required to pay taxes to the British government while not having a voice in parliament. Now, that same situation is happening in the modern United States with Washington D.C. The people of D.C. pay much higher taxes to the U.S. government than many Americans, however they still do not have a voting representative in congress. The issue is so widespread that even the D.C. license plates sport the motto. 

D.C. license plate with the slogan “TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION” on it.

“There’s a lot of examples of the district status that arguably violate international law, even though it conforms currently to the system of US law” stated Strauss. “It means that a historic wrong perpetuates today here in the capital of a republic that was ironically enough founded to fight the very principle they maintain here.” Not only that, but without the full control and individual freedom to operate that D.C. is seeking, it is extremely limited in many aspects. “We’re the only chief executive who can’t activate the national guard. So, when we have a deadly insurrection and we couldn’t activate the national guard and were left to liberate congress with a municipal police force, those are real life or death consequences” Strauss added. 

However, an important detail is lacking here. “The income tax is not set by the federal government. DC sets its own income tax rate, which is set by the DC council, which is elected by the residents of DC under this home rule program that congress has authorized.” said David Mork, former chief of staff for Illinois House representative Peter Roskam. “So I believe every person in DC is represented on the council, and they’re the ones figuring out the tax rates.” 

THE H.R.51

As mentioned before, several attempts have been made to pass a bill that would make D.C. a state. None however, saw any kind of progress until the H.R.51 bill in 2019. This bill passed the House and moved to the Senate where it has been ever since. It might not seem like much progress was made, but getting the bill to pass the House was a huge step towards statehood. 

This bill laid out many conditions on how D.C. statehood would come to fruition and how it would be structured, but most notably it proposed one major detail. The proposition was to keep a small federal district known as “the Capital” consisting of all federal buildings and monuments. The remainder of D.C.’s residential, commercial and public spaces into the 51st state known as Washington, Douglas Commonwealth. 

“Right now, we call the federal district the National Capital Service Area. What is the National Capital Service Area? It is literally a political boundary with legal significance. It is patrolled by a different police force than your average MPD officer, the trash is picked up by a federal employee of the national park service and not the DC department of public works. The grass is mowed by the national park service and not the DC department of parks and recreation. If you buy something in the federal district, you don’t pay sales tax to the district government.” Strauss said. “The Vatican used to run largely the roman empire. The bishop of Rome no longer governs rome. There is a Vatican city which is technically a nation-state, it has an ambassador to the UN and all that, and it is sovereign and gets to do it’s own thing within Rome. it’s not dissimilar to that.”

The reasoning behind this model is an easy way around the constitutional requirement of a federal district. The area where the government resides being completely separate from the state of D.C. allows the existence of the Capital to be the required federal district while the remainder of D.C. is allowed to become a state. This way the residents of D.C. can have representation in Congress and the area known as the Capital will then have the status D.C. has now except there will be minimum to no residents in the space. 

Proposed map of D.C. with the Capital in shaded area. Via StatehoodDC.gov

One thing that often comes up when talking about this proposal however is how the people inside the new federal district would be represented. “I think there are constitutional challenges to that,” said Mork. “My understanding is that if that were the case, the 23rd amendment would essentially grant the residents of the white house their own 3 electoral college votes.” Chances are, there would be some kind of exception for the first family and they would not have representation in congress, however the issue has not yet been resolved.

ARGUMENTS FOR STATEHOOD

In 1970, D.C. was awarded its first non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives. Not long before that however, D.C. had voted in its first presidential election. In 1961 the 23rd amendment granted citizens of D.C. the ability to vote in the 1964 election and those following it. This act marked the beginning of the push for equal representation in the government for residents of the district. 

Since those two moments however, little progress has been made. The only main change was in 1973 when the Home Rule Act was passed. This allowed residents of D.C. to elect their first mayor. Despite these historic achievements, D.C. still finds itself essentially in the same battle it has been fighting since the beginning. Yes, residents now get to choose their mayor, yes, citizens can now vote in presidential elections, and yes, D.C. has an advocate for its residents in the House and Senate. However, there is still no direct way that an average citizen of the District of Columbia can have any kind of say in the laws that govern their lives. “We have a dysfunctional national government that would benefit from the representation of all Americans,” Strauss said. “Every time the senate can’t vote on something because there’s a tie, or there’s not enough votes to do this or that, that’s not really the lack of a majority of Americans speaking, that’s the enforcement of a minority rule.”

While yes, the Republican party does have the majority in the Senate, an equal amount of representatives are awarded to each state. Wyoming, with the lowest population of people by state (census.gov) (576,851 people) has 2 Senators. Despite California having the most residents at 39,538,223, it also receives 2 senators. “Right now, 50% of the US senate represents 18% of American people. If you take the partisan split 50/50, the 50 democratic senators represent 30 million more Americans than the 50 republicans. They are literally using the dysfunction of the United States Senate to maintain minority rule over a majority. The majority of Americans live in large metropolitan areas, and yet the senate represents disproportionately rural and suburban areas.” This is why the House has 435 members, in an attempt to give a more accurate representation of the U.S. population. However, the number of representatives per state in the House is uneven per capita but still gives a better representation of the political leanings and voices of the nation.

“How we vote shouldn’t necessarily be an obstacle” Strauss stated. “We are a large urban center, as such we have a population that resembles a large urban center here in the United States.” Typically, places that have larger groupings of people, big cities in most cases, often tend to lean more towards the left. On the other hand, places that are more rural and have smaller population density usually end up leaning more towards the right. By not giving representation to a large city like D.C., that cuts out a large number of liberal leaning voices. 

 OBSTACLES AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST STATEHOOD

A 2020 nationwide survey from Data for Progress found that 43% percent of people in the U.S. support D.C. statehood. This number was up from 2019 where it came in at only 35%. Many people are worried about two main issues. 1: That the constitution explicitly says that the capital must be an impartial federal district, and 2: D.C. being so overwhelmingly Democratic would more or less create three free seats for Democrats in congress. 

“I think you would have to go back to the mindset of our founders at the time, who were living in a very different context where the authority of the states was so much greater. And the founders were interested in having a sort of safeguard for the federal district to not be beholden to the actions of any one state or be able to be manipulated by or interfered with by any one state. They had dealt with the article of confederation, and power of the states in that, and they were trying to set up this new federal government and so wanted the seat of that government to be independent of any states.” Mork Stated.

When looking at how the capital is described as needing to be, it does in fact seem rather unconstitutional to give D.C. any votes in congress. Doing so is pretty much the definition of not being impartial. “It’s not an accident of history, it was an intentionally thought and designed feature of the founding of this government” said Mork. 

In fact it’s a valid argument to say that even giving D.C. the privilege of having any kind of representation, the right to vote in presidential elections and the right to elect a mayor are blatantly unconstitutional. This is tricky though. As long as you are registered to vote and do not qualify for any kind of reason that would exclude you from voting, the constitution states that all eligible Americans have the right to vote in federal, state or local elections. 

“The language of the constitution is pretty clear, as amended by the 23rd amendment it just does not contemplate DC being a state. There’s language in the 23rd amendment that says if it were a state, it references the least populous state in terms of not giving DC more electoral votes than the least populous state which sort of by definition assumes that DC is not on the list of states. And I think that if this were such a needed priority, I think this would have been revisited some other time within the last 200+ years. Even closer since the founders they’ve passed language that does not go so far as making DC a state.” Said Mork. “If it were such a pressing priority, when Obama was president, early in his first term, they (Democrats) had 60 votes in the Senate and could have passed whatever legislation they wanted. And I think that if there was some sort of urgency to this, that that would have been a higher priority for the Democratic majority at the time.”

The most similar case to that of D.C. are those of the U.S. territories. Eligible residents of certain territories are considered U.S. citizens, however, they cannot vote in presidential elections. All five of the territories plus D.C. are each represented in congress by a non-voting delegate. The only thing that distinguishes them and allows D.C. to vote for president are the facts that it is on the mainland and is the Capital. Legally speaking, Washington, D.C. and the territories are pretty much under the same restrictions and rules when it comes to representation.

The second argument that is commonly made about three free seats for democrats is slightly more controversial. Many republicans argue that Democrats only want D.C. to become a state because it will make having the majority in the House and Senate much easier. That is often countered by Democrats calling for all voices of U.S. citizens to be heard. This is the reason that the Republican majority Senate has not yet brought up the H.R.51 bill for a vote, and probably will not do so any time soon. 

“Yeah I mean I think the practical political consideration is top of mind for many on the Republican side. In a theoretical sense, you could get around that if you had a 1 for 1, like we added some other territory that is potentially more reliably Republican. It’s a practical political consideration, but I don’t think that there couldn’t be some kind of accommodation that isn’t ultimately dispositive.” Mork added.

HOW D.C. RESIDENTS ARE USING THEIR VOICES

A mural by Jah-One, at the Sherwood Recreation Center in Northeast.

A mural by Cesar Maxit, at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Northeast

Throughout the city, there are many examples of residents showing their support for statehood. Anyone around the city is likely to see the popular yard signs sporting slogans like “Statehood For the People of D.C.” Occasionally, there are people with similar signs downtown showing their support for the creation of the 51st state. In June of 2020, MuralsDC put up 51 murals celebrating Washington, D.C. and its quest for statehood. The murals were spread around the city with at least one all 8 wards. 

“Everything from those lawn signs you’re putting out to the bumper stickers to making sure your license plate has the right message helps, traveling and talking to people around the country is important, talking to people from around the country who are visiting here is important, this is your fight, this is our fight. So continue to be active, to be aggressive, know that we’re here doing our part day in and day out trying to work out strategis to make this happen.” Strass said when asked what he would tell residents who are advocating for statehood. “Keep doing it!” he added. 

IS IT POSSIBLE/PLAUSIBLE

“People are saying: you know, what are the odds? Right now I can calculate them pretty easily at 46%. That’s the one thing about math in the senate is dividing by 100 isn’t hard. Look, we have a democratic President, a democratic vice President, and it’s passed the house. And we have the highest support for it ever in American history in the senate” said Strauss. At the time of the bill entering the Senate, there were 47 Democrats. This would have required at least two republicans and the one independent Senator to vote in favor of the statehood bill. With the polarization in recent years of representatives usually voting pretty strictly with their party, this issue proves to be a hard one. However, with the current state of the U.S. government having a democratic majority in the House and a democratic administration in the White House, statehood advocates are optimistic. “It is achievable, it is constitutional, it will eventually happen” Strauss added. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Mural by Lisa Marie Thalhammer at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Northeast.

In the long run, D.C. statehood appears to be a serious possibility. And advocates are optimistic. However, there are a lot of obstacles that need to be overcome in the process and it will almost definitely be one that stretches out for a long time. But until a decision admitting Washington, Douglas Commonwealth to the union is made, the only thing that is for certain is that statehood for D.C. will continue to be a very heavily contested subject for a very long time.