I am from D.C. Not Maryland. Not Virginia. D.C. My mother was born there, I grew up there, and much of my family still lives there, along with more than 700,000 Americans.
These basic facts seem to mystify many Mainers. I can’t tell you how many times I have been told by non-Washingtonians that “nobody is really from D.C.” — that everyone just “chose” to move there from somewhere else. But my family and I, like other native Washingtonians, didn’t “choose” to live in D.C.; it’s just where we’re from. Like Mainers, we take great pride in having deep roots in the city. (There’s even an organization called the Association of the Oldest Inhabitants of D.C., founded in 1865, with members who can trace their roots back to the early 1800s.)
Unlike someone born in Augusta or anywhere else in Maine, however, my mom and her D.C. neighbors don’t have full voting rights. They can vote for president, but in Congress all they have are a “Non-Voting Delegate” and a “Shadow Senator,” neither of whom have full voting rights.
Yes, this is “taxation without representation,” the root cause of the American Revolution. It undermines the very foundation of representative democracy. Washingtonians had the right to vote in federal elections until it was stripped away in 1801. They have been fighting to win it back ever since.
They are closer now than ever before. The movement to make D.C. the 51st state gained unprecedented momentum in the months since protests shined a light on America’s enduring racial inequalities. Race historically has been a major reason why D.C., with its large Black population, still does not have full voting rights.
Last summer, with support from Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, the House of Representatives voted 232-180 to establish D.C. as America’s 51st state, the first D.C. statehood bill ever to pass a house of Congress. A Senate bill introduced in January has 40 co-sponsors. Unfortunately, neither Sen. Angus King nor Sen. Susan Collins is among them.
The power to create new states rests entirely with Congress, but some members are skeptical about adding a new state for the first time in a half century. Some claim that we must amend the Constitution if we want to give Washingtonians the vote. That is simply not true.
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution specifies that the seat of the federal government must reside in an independent “District” not controlled by any state. This federal district cannot exceed 10 square miles, but the Constitution does not specify its minimum size. Back in the 1840s, when District residents on the western bank of the Potomac clamored to be given back to the state of Virginia, Congress simply shrank the capital by about 20 square miles. It can do so again. The current statehood bill shrinks the federal district down to the National Mall, the White House, and the Capitol complex in downtown Washington. Everything else would become the 51st state.
But why not just give the rest of the District back to Maryland? The simple answer is that Washingtonians today vehemently oppose that idea, as do Maryland residents. D.C. has been separate from Maryland for 220 years. It has its own identity, culture, and interests. Forcing D.C. to become part of Maryland would be somewhat like forcing Maine to join back up with Massachusetts, as it had been before 1820. Unthinkable!
Other critics say that D.C. is “too small” and “too urban” to become a state, as if voting rights should depend on acreage rather than citizenship. Though it would be the smallest state in terms of size, D.C. has a larger population than Wyoming or Vermont and likely will pass Alaska and possibly North Dakota in the next decade. The federal government owns only about 25% of the land in D.C., compared to more than 50% of Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, and Utah and almost 85% of Nevada. Rural states are vastly over-represented in Congress; having an urban state would provide a small measure of balance.
Some opponents claim that D.C. should not be a state because, as Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton says, it has too many “bureaucrats and white-collar professionals,” as if voting rights should depend on our jobs. Washingtonians — whether they are teachers, cops, janitors, or doctors — have the highest per capita tax rate in the country and pay more in federal taxes than 22 states.
American citizens who live in our nation’s capital should no longer suffer from taxation without representation. Let’s hope Maine’s senators agree.
Chris Myers Asch teaches history at Colby College and is the author of “Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital.”
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