DC Statehood

Electoral-vote.com:

In every term since 1991, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has introduced a statehood bill for the District. These have gotten nowhere, but she isn't giving up. At a Memorial Day event at the D.C. War Memorial, Norton pointed out that 30,000 D.C. residents are veterans, yet the 700,000 people who live there have no vote in whether the country goes to war. Norton is a member of several House committees, but she can't vote on bills. And, of course, D.C. has no senators. This time might be different. Her bill, dubbed H.R. 51 (since D.C. would be the 51st state), has a chance to at least pass the House, since House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) now supports it. The bill also has over 200 Democratic cosponsors, If it passes the House, it will die in the Senate because Mitch McConnell will never let a vote come up. He knows very well that if D.C. becomes a state, it would elect two black Democrats to the Senate (and one black Democrat—probably Norton—to the House). Although D.C. has more residents than Wyoming or Vermont, when it comes to votes in Congress, it has none. Nevertheless, if the House does pass the bill, the fight for "no taxation without representation" could come back again and it could play a role in the 2020 election. If the Democrats capture the House and Senate in 2020 and the Republicans filibuster the same bill in 2021, it will be embarrassing explaining why over 700,000 Americans (of which 63% are minorities) shouldn't have senators or a voting representative. One (weak) defense is that Art. 1 Sec. 9 of the Constitution states that states shall cede land (not exceeding ten miles square) for the seat of government. However, the boundaries of the new state could easily be drawn to exclude the White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court, which would remain in the District.

PR and DC Statehood is straightforward enfranchisement, basic decency, plain good sense, and amounts to Democratic partisan hardball against Nazi Republicans, there is nothing but upside in pushing for it every day till we die.