Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on Monday endorsed the idea of Washington, D.C. becoming a state so that the District has equal representation in Congress.
She retweeted the 51 for 51 group which seeks to gain statehood and representation in Congress, saying she supports their movement.
700,000 Americans who live in DC have waited more than 200 years to have a meaningful voice in Congress. We’re done waiting. 51 votes in the Senate is enough to put someone on the Supreme Court. It ought to be enough to make DC a state. https://t.co/NUPXegfX9C
— 51 for 51 (@51for51) May 20, 2019
Democracy doesn’t mean “for some of us.” It’s time for Washington, DC to have statehood and equal representation in Congress, and we should only need a simple majority to make it happen. https://t.co/0CjyjCxByH
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) May 20, 2019
According to 51 for 51 Campaign Director Stasha Rhodes, Gillibrand is the first one to truly embrace the idea.
“The over seven hundred thousand residents of Washington, D.C. have waited long enough to have the full rights afforded all the other tax-paying citizens of our great nation. To get there, the Senate needs to make sure that the same number of votes needed to approve the Supreme Court to lifetime appointments, can approve full rights for Washington, D.C. residents," Rhodes told The Hill in a statement. “Senator Gillibrand is the first to fully embrace this vision, and we hope that those vying to lead our country will join her in the efforts to get full rights for its residents.”
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What's interesting is Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced legislation in January to make D.C. its own state. The bill had 155 co-sponsors, the most amount of support she's had since she began introducing the legislation back in 1993.
The question that comes to my mind when I hear D.C. wants to become a state: how many of the people who live in the District work for Congress or some form of the federal government? How many of them are members of Congress themselves? Are we going to create a new state so a new member of Congress is established and he or she represents the interests of the Congressional members who live in the area? Because if that's the case, it's like Congressmen and women who live in the district but were voted into office in another area are being represented twice: once by themselves and again by the person who would represent the District.
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