TACOMA — Washington became the 42nd state in 1889. Now, both of its U.S. senators want to see the other Washington — D.C., that is — get granted statehood, too.
Sen. Maria Cantwell earlier this month voiced her support for the idea on social media.
“I have cosponsored S. 51, legislation to recognize the District of Columbia as a state,” she posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Jan. 15. “DC’s more than 700,000 residents should have full representation in our democracy.”
Cantwell’s congressional counterpart, Sen. Patty Murray, told McClatchy in an emailed statement that she feels the same. D.C. residents have lived without full representation in Congress for too long, she said, and have “therefore [been] denied the right to fully participate in our democracy.”
“It’s long past time for that to change,” Murray said. “I am proud to stand with my colleagues to cosponsor the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would grant DC statehood and finally give the nearly 700,000 residents of our nation’s capital a real voice in Congress — an effort I have supported for years.”
“I have cosponsored S. 51, legislation to recognize the District of Columbia as a state. DC’s more than 700,000 residents should have full representation in our democracy,” Sen. Maria Cantwell said earlier this month on X.
Why do people want D.C. to become a state?
The idea to create a new state from Washington, D.C., has been around for some time, with iterations of the D.C.-statehood debate circulating since the early 1800s.
Of note: The last time that the United States let another jurisdiction join was in 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii hopped on board.
D.C. statehood-related referendums, campaigns and bills in the Senate and House have cropped up since the 1980s, but nothing has made it through both congressional chambers.
The House of Representatives in June 2020 gave the greenlight to statehood with H.R. 51, but the first administration of President Donald Trump and the Senate opposed it. The following spring, the House again passed the measure, sponsored by Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s nonvoting delegate.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration had indicated support for the bill, but the Senate remained an insurmountable hurdle. (About 92% of the district’s voters backed Biden in the 2020 presidential election.)
Advocates argue that D.C. residents are treated like second-class citizens; they serve on juries and in the military, pay federal taxes and contribute to the U.S. economy. At the same time, they’re not able to control their own budget or laws, and have no votes in Congress, according to statehood.dc.gov.
The 51st-state idea is embraced by those who live within the district. More than 85% of D.C. residents reportedly voted for statehood during a 2016 nonbinding referendum.
But detractors contend that the District of Columbia was never meant to be a state. They view the push as an “unconstitutional power grab”: a liberal-led partisan effort to pass more left-leaning legislation.
Social media users haven’t been shy about responding to Cantwell’s posts about the controversial topic.
“No. The District of Columbia was intended to be the seat of the federal government, not a state,” one X commenter wrote Jan. 15. Some argued that the lawmaker’s focus should stay fixed on the West Coast Washington, not the other one out east.
Still, others have applauded Cantwell’s stance, including on a pro-D.C. statehood Facebook post from 2020.
One person noted that D.C. has a larger population than states such as Vermont and Wyoming. Another replied to the senator: “Thank you, this is long past due!! [American flag emoji].”
