Puerto Ricans on Tuesday narrowly voted in favor of a nonbinding measure pushing it toward statehood.
The island territory voted 52%-48% in favor of the ballot measure, according to the Associated Press. About 50% of voters showed up to the polls, up from the 23% who turned out in 2017, the last time the question was put forward.
The vote, the sixth of its kind since 1967, was put on the ballot after a 2017 measure passed, but it was deemed by many to be illegitimate. Proponents of the latest ballot question, in which the language is unapproved by the Justice Department, hoped that its straightforward wording would entice more support.
Puerto Rican statehood outside the island territory in the past few years has become a political football, along with statehood measures for Washington, D.C. Democrats, hoping to gain two Senate seats, generally support it, while Republicans typically oppose it.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2019 said he would not bring a vote on statehood to the floor, claiming that the move was a ploy to secure two more Democratic Senate seats. President Trump, in 2018, said he is an “absolute no” on statehood.
On the other side, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most forceful voices in favor of the measure, co-led an effort in August for the territory to become a state without Congress’s approval.
“Puerto Rico needs to be afforded the freedom to design its own future,” she wrote in an op-ed, along with Rep. Nydia Velazquez, noting her own Puerto Rican descent.
Leading voices for statehood within Puerto Rico rejected Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal.
