The Atlantic
But Democrats are taking their time weighing their next move.
Logan Mock-Bunting / Redux
With one move, Democrats could reshape government and potentially lock in their majority in the Senate for years to come. Four of their own stand in the way.
The party may have just a few months to make it happen but leaders in the House and Senate are taking their time and arguing about the details.
Advocates see statehood for Washington, D.C., as a moral issue, because it would give equal rights and representation to the residents of a city whose population is larger than that of three states. And they see it as a legal issue, because it would clarify the gray areas that result from the federal government’s control over some municipal affairs. However, as has always been the case in establishing new states, the issue is almost completely consumed by politics, because what the statehood debate really comes down to is control of the Senate.
The Atlantic
D.C. Statehood Is More Urgent Than Ever
“The real fraud is that we call ourselves a democracy yet deny the people of our capital political representation.”
The Atlantic
Less than six months before a mob of the sitting president’s supporters would descend upon the United States Capitol, a more solemn crowd gathered at its steps. Among those who arrived to pay their final respects to the late Representative John Lewis were Washington, D.C., residents who appreciated his unwavering support of statehood for the district. As they waited in line for the public viewing, a small group of Black women raised their fists in honor of the Georgia lawmaker known as the conscience of Congress, who saw their city’s struggle as the very kind of “good trouble” that defines his legacy. Lewis had backed the symbolically named House Resolution 51 since Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s nonvoting delegate, first introduced it nearly three decades ago. In 1993