Demand statehood for DC

Wyoming has 578,000 people, is 92% white, and has two US senators. Vermont has 624,000 people, is 94% white, and has two US senators.

DC has 705,000 people, is 47% Black -- and has zero senators.

As local advocacy group DC Vote notes: “With a majority Black and Brown population, the fight for DC Statehood cannot be separated from the fight for racial justice.”

But right now, those living in our nation’s capital don’t get the fundamental rights that their fellow Americans enjoy -- like a meaningful vote, real representation, and a full voice in their government.

That’s because the Constitution says that only states can be represented in Congress. And as a result, DC residents have no one to fight for them in the Senate -- and in the House, they only have a non-voting delegate.

People in DC pay more in total federal income tax than those in 22 other states -- only to get no say in how those tax dollars are spent. (It’s the reason DC license plates say “Taxation Without Representation.”) And Washingtonians have fought and died in every war our country has been in -- yet those veterans are denied the very freedoms they risked their lives for.

These Americans have been denied a seat at the table of our democracy for far too long. And the Washington, DC Admission Act -- which was passed by the House in June -- would bring an end to this long-standing injustice.

If you believe that EVERY American deserves an equal say in our democracy, tell the Senate to make DC the 51st state.