In case you forgot that the push for granting Washington, D.C., statehood is all about politics, Mayor Muriel Bowser would be happy to remind you.
While Senate Democrats have hit a brick wall with the debate over the filibuster, Bowser once again wants everyone to know that two D.C. senators would be the mindless Democratic drones that we know they would be. “Today we’re talking about the filibuster,” Bowser said. “But consider this: We wouldn’t even be in this situation if Washington, D.C., had two senators.”
Bowser is right, and that is the only reason Democrats want D.C. to become a state. The city voted for President Joe Biden by a margin of 92%-5%, a larger margin than any state (the next closest was Wyoming, which went for former President Donald Trump 70%-27%). When Richard Nixon won a 49-state wipeout in 1972, he secured only 21% of the vote in D.C., the most ever by a Republican.
Bowser is quick to remind everyone how politically convenient D.C. statehood would be. She brought it up after the Jan. 6 riot, pretending suddenly to care about riots and safety after ignoring Black Lives Matter riots that broke out in June 2020. Bowser and other proponents of D.C. statehood like to paint it as a civil rights issue, while they fervently oppose the more logical compromise of retroceding the city back to Maryland, which has precedent and avoids the clear partisan result of giving Democrats two free senators.
But this battle isn’t about civil rights. It is entirely about the balance of power in the Senate, an institution that Democrats complain is rigged against them whenever they are in the minority — and even when they are in the majority and centrist Democrats don’t toe the party line. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wouldn’t have to worry about West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema if he had two party cheerleaders from D.C.
D.C. statehood is a purely partisan proposal that is being discussed only because it would benefit Democrats with no potential drawbacks. It is being pursued only to help Senate Democrats, an act that is entirely transparent given how often Bowser ties it to politics. It should be rejected uniformly, not just by Republicans, as the partisan power grab it is.
