The House votes to make Washington DC a state

House Democrats agreed to make Washington DC the 51st state in the nation, which would grant voting representation to the more than 700,000 residents of the capital.

If approved, the DC of the District of Columbia would become Douglass Commonwealth, honoring abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and their state would create a seat in Congress and two senators. It is the first time that Congress has introduced a measure to declare DC a state.

The legislation has 227 cosponsors in the House and 40 in the Senate, all Democrats, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has said he will not present the bill for a vote in his chamber. Donald Trump has also promised to veto the measure.

Still, it marks a massive symbolic milestone after several failed legislative attempts and decades of pressure from statehood advocates, voting rights activists, and officials who have urged lawmakers to grant rights to DC residents. . The city is more than 47% black but the majority of its residents are minorities. Proponents of statehood have argued that their status amounts to voter suppression.

Despite paying taxes, DC residents have little recourse on how federal taxpayer dollars are spent without their own elected officials being held accountable. Instead, a “delegate” who cannot vote on any measure in the room represents the district in Congress.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton argues that the population, the tax base and the rating of the city’s bonds justify its status as a state.

Statehood efforts have met stiff opposition from Republicans, whose ranks in Congress are unlikely to increase in the largely Democratic city should DC become a state. Among DC voters, the Democratic presidential candidate has garnered approximately 89 percent of the vote since 2000.

Opponents argue that DC could be absorbed by Maryland, a neighboring state, or suggested that the Democratic-led effort is simply a political stance.

Only one Democrat, Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted against the measure, along with 178 Republicans.

The city’s single government structure is headed by its mayor (currently Muriel Bowser) and a municipal council under an “internal government” government that gives Congress official jurisdiction over the city.

Mayor Bowser and other DC officials have attacked the recent DC presidential “occupation” by federal troops during protests of police brutality.

During a press conference Thursday, he said that although he was born in the city without full electoral representation, “I swear I will not die here without a vote.”

She said the Republican opposition to the statehood of the district amounts to claims “that we are too liberal, or we are too black, or there are too many Democrats.”

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden also supports statehood.