There is a growing refrain among Republicans warning against statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.: Admission into the union guarantees more Democrats in Congress. Statehood for Puerto Rico, however, does not have nearly the same partisan prospects as statehood for Washington. The conflation of the two is a political miscalculation.

It’s true that if the capital ever became a state (unlikely in the near term, as it would require a Constitutional amendment), it would result in the election of two new Democratic senators and a corresponding number of liberal House members to Congress. However, despite the assumption of many Republicans, this would not be true for Puerto Rico. A brief study of the history of the territory reveals its makeup to be far more purple than blue.