Civic Register
| 4.16.19
Do You Support D.C. Statehood?
Should Washington, D.C, be granted statehood?
What’s the story?
- As Washington, D.C., celebrates Emancipation Day on April 16, twenty attorneys general are adding their support to a bill making its way through Congress that would grant statehood to the nation’s capital.
- “The District’s over 700,000 residents work hard, raise families, and pay the highest federal taxes per capita, and yet they are deprived of the fundamental right to participate meaningfully in our representative democracy,” the AGs write.
“The District of Columbia deserves a voice in this country’s legislature and should be able to govern itself like any other state. The District’s residents deserve equal voting rights and autonomy under the law. We support Statehood for the District of Columbia and urge passage of H.R. 51 to accomplish this goal.”
What are critics of statehood saying?
- Adam Garfinkle, founding editor of the right-leaning The American Interest, wrote that “it’s a partisan ploy. We know it would require a Constitutional Amendment to happen, and so it’s highly unlikely to happen.”
“The numbers say it all,” Garfinkle argues. “Since the 2000 presidential election, about 85 percent of the District vote has gone Democratic. Folks: 85 percent is a very big number in electoral politics. And that is, to repeat, the obvious principal reason that Democrats want statehood and Republicans don’t. To understand most of what will go down over this issue in this Congress and possibly the next, this is really all you need to know.”
The 20 attorneys general who have declared their support for D.C. statehood are:
- Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine
- California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
- Connecticut Attorney General William Tong
- Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings
- Hawaii Attorney General Clare E. Connors
- Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul
- Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller
- Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear
- Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh
- Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey
- Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel
- Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison
- Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford
- New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas
- New York Attorney General Tish James
- North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein
- Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum
- Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro
- Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan
- Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring
- Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson
What do you think?
Do you support statehood for D.C.? Are there better ways, as Garfinkle argues, to get "D.C. residents all the rights due to them without the trouble of adding a new state to the union"? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.
—Josh Herman
(Photo Credit: iStockphoto / Xavier_Ascanio)
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