By DEMARCO RUSH
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 15. 2024 — While most of the country’s attention is focused on the presidential race following the dramatic debate, the elections to determine the United States Senate and House of Representatives are just as critical, as the legislative bodies have the ultimate power to enact laws, fund government programs, and even declare war.
All 50 states, the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), and some U.S. territories will vote on their representatives for 2025 and beyond.
However, when Washingtonians cast their ballots, they will do so with a significant caveat.
D.C. residents elect a nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives who may sit on committees, participate in debates, and introduce legislation but cannot vote on the House floor. Unlike residents of U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, which also have nonvoting delegates, D.C. residents are subject to all federal taxes.
D.C.’s representative is Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has held the seat since 1991. After winning the Democratic primary in June, the 87-year-old Norton is expected to retain her seat.
According to DC’s New Columbia Statehood Commission, “Statehood is the only remedy that provides full representation in Congress for the residents of Washington, DC.”
The Washington Informer spoke to citizens, politicians, and advocates to gauge how Washingtonians feel about D.C. statehood.
Washington, D.C., Councilmember Christina Henderson spoke to The Washington Informer about D.C. meeting the requirements to be considered a state. “We have more residents than several other states who have two senators. We deserve fair representation like everyone else.”
However, she emphasized that achieving statehood would be a tall task.
“In order for D.C. to get statehood, you need a trifecta: Democrats to control the House, Senate, and a president willing to sign it.”
Appointing the nation’s capital as a state would certainly disrupt the current flow of politics, particularly in the Senate.
“If D.C. was a state and we elected two Democratic senators, it would not be this split in the Senate, which requires the vice president to break so many ties,” said Henderson.
D.C. native Amour Moore felt strongly about D.C. gaining statehood. “I feel like it’s unjust, it’s not fair to the public and not fair to the minority that has to deal with issues, troubles, and new laws that are passed that directly affect them,” Moore said.
Josh Burch, co-founder of Neighbors United for Statehood, echoed those sentiments.
“If our legislature passes a law, Congress can then mess with our budget and say you might have that law in the books, but we’re not going to allow you to fund that… we are still treated like a colony in the United States in 2024.”
Although there is a path to statehood, it would be an expensive one for the district. All staff, including clerks, prosecutors, and judges of the superior court, are part of the Department of Justice, not the District of Columbia, and a new judicial infrastructure would need to be created.
New facilities would also be needed to take on inmates who are currently sent to federal prisons. Currently, in D.C., convicted felons are transferred to one of the 122 Federal Bureau of Prisons because there are no state prisons.
The path to statehood will require many steps, but for the people of Washington, D.C., they are necessary and inherent in the values of the United States.
Josh Burch, co-founder of Neighbors United for Statehood, echoed those sentiments.
“If our legislature passes a law, Congress can then mess with our budget and say you might have that law in the books, but we’re not going to allow you to fund that… we are still treated like a colony in the United States in 2024.”
Although there is a path to statehood, it would be an expensive one for the district. All staff, including clerks, prosecutors, and judges of the superior court, are part of the Department of Justice, not the District of Columbia, and a new judicial infrastructure would need to be created.
New facilities would also be needed to take on inmates who are currently sent to federal prisons. Currently, in D.C., convicted felons are transferred to one of the 122 Federal Bureau of Prisons because there are no state prisons.
NOTE: This article was published by The Washington Informer, on September 15, 2024, which was observed as International Day of Democracy.A
BAHAMAMAS CHRONICLE EDITOR’S NOTE: I decided share it with readers of my Washington, D.C. – based online publication, BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, which has a huge following among the Bahamian diaspora across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom as well as in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean.
Given the very valid points raised in the article, it is absolutely important to point out that the District of Coleumbia has a larger population than two states: Wyoming, with 578,739 and Vermont, 623,989.
Both states have two Senators in the United States Senate and each has one representative in the United States House of Representatives.
The District of Columbia, on the other hand, has a non- voting delegate in the House in Eleanor Holmes Norton, a prominent lawyer and human rights activist, who has served in that position since June of 1991.
It is also worth mentioning that many political observers have had high praise for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has been described as one of the most effective mayors of a major city.
With a current population of around 700,00, the District of Columbia had relatively few residents until the Civil War. The presence of the U.S. federal government in Washington has been instrumental in the city’s later growth and development. Its role as the capital leads people to forget that approximately one-third of the District of Columbia’s population was born in the city.
In 2011, the District of Columbia’s black population slipped below 50 percent for the first time in over 50 years. The District was a majority-black district from the late 1950s through 2011.
The District of Columbia has had a significant African-American population since the District’s creation. Several neighborhoods are noted for their contributions to black history and culture. Like numerous other border and northern cities in the first half of the 20th century, the District of Columbia received many black migrants from the South in the Great Migration.
African Americans moved north for better education and job opportunities, as well as to escape legal segregation and lynchings. Government growth during World War II provided economic opportunities for African Americans, too.
In the postwar era, the percentage of African Americans in the District steadily increased as its total population declined as a result of suburbanization, supported by federal highway construction, and white flight. The black population included a strong middle and upper class.
Since the 2000 U.S. census, the District has added more than 120,000 residents and reversed some of the population losses seen in previous decades. The growth is speeding up; the population has increased more than 100,000 since the 2010 census. The proportion of white, Asian, and Hispanic residents has increased, and the proportion of black residents has stagnated, with the latter mostly moving to the suburbs.
Between 2010 and the 2020 census, the black population experienced a notable decline, with blacks comprising fewer than half of the population for the first time since the late-1950s, though still the largest racial group in the city. The percentage of Asians, Hispanics and whites all experienced small increases.
SOURCE: Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia
