Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to support adding Puerto Rico and D.C. as states, which makes sense given partisan power dynamics: It could easily mean four new Democratic senators and a few new Democratic congressmen.
But here’s a more interesting and telling detail, courtesy of the latest Washington Examiner/YouGov poll: Republicans, Democrats, and independents all support Puerto Rico statehood much more than they support D.C. statehood. And there’s good reason for that.
D.C. statehood doesn’t have support from a majority of the public, only a plurality. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico statehood enjoys better than 2-to-1 majority support.
Greater support for Puerto Rican statehood than D.C. statehood holds up across party lines. For instance, 70% of Democrats “strongly support” Puerto Rican statehood, compared to 54% strongly supporting D.C. statehood (about 1 in 6 Democrats “somewhat support” statehood for each).
While 45% of independents support D.C. statehood (strongly or somewhat), 61% of independents want Puerto Rico to be a state.
And while Republicans oppose statehood for both, their opposition is much stronger when it comes to D.C.: 70% strongly oppose D.C. statehood, compared to 51% who strongly oppose Puerto Rican statehood.
So, partiality toward Puerto Rico is not a partisan thing. What explains it? I think there are good reasons here.
First is population: D.C., with a population of about 700,000, would be the third-least-populous state — only Vermont and Wyoming have fewer people. When Vermont became a state in 1791, it had 2.2% of the voter-eligible U.S. population, which today would make it above average in population. When Wyoming was added in 1890, it was nakedly a Republican power grab. Adding small D.C. would look like another partisan power grab.
Puerto Rico has more than 3 million Americans, more than Iowa. That’s a respectable-sized state. It would be more populous than 20 states.
Also, there’s the perception that the people of D.C. have too much political power. D.C. is becoming less poor and black than it used to be and more rich, white, and powerful. D.C. easily has the highest gross domestic product per capita, with double the second-highest state. D.C. would be the wealthiest state, measured by median household income. While much of D.C. lives in poverty, it is a wealthy city filled with lobbyists, congressional staffers, and journalists. Much of the public doesn’t think those people need more political power.
