The U.S. House of Representatives has set a vote for Friday, June 26 to finally grant statehood to the District of Columbia. This will be the first time since 1993 since either chamber of Congress has taken up the issue. With 226 co-sponsors, the bill is all but guaranteed to pass.
I’m glad to see my representative, Chellie Pingree, is one of those co-sponsors. The bill is dead on arrival this year in the U.S. Senate, where Mitch McConnell has described equal voting rights for D.C. residents as “full-bore socialism.” But if Democrats achieve 50 seats in the U.S. Senate in this November’s election, and Joe Biden’s current 9-point lead in national polls holds up, D.C. statehood is a real possibility in 2021. It’s about time.
Maine was admitted as a state in 1820, 32 years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. By way of comparison, D.C. became the nation’s capital in 1800 — 220 years ago. When Maine was admitted to the U.S., it had just shy of 300,000 residents. D.C. today has 705,000, more than either Wyoming or Vermont.