D.C.’s Lone Representative Thinks She Might Have Some Company in Congress Soon

Eleanor Holmes Norton believes D.C. is close to becoming a state. Photo: Getty Images Washington, D.C., occupies a unique place in the American mind. The seat of the federal government byword for corruption and political impunity. But there’s more to D.C than conniving politicians or ambitious pundits. D.C. is the home of Howard University and a thriving Black middle class; the city’s population is still half Black despite recent waves of gentrification. Disenfranchisement is part of D.C.

But Holmes Norton believes that will change, and soon. She spoke to Intelligencer by phone to explain the history of the fight for statehood — and describes what victory would mean to the people of D.C.Do you feel that statehood for D.C. is gaining traction in a way that perhaps it hasn’t before now?

Well, I can tell you why it’s taken so long for me to get it. I have been in the minority for most of my years in Congress. I was in the majority for once, for only two or three years. At that point, I tried to get at least the House vote, because we had a Republican who had missed getting votes for Utah. I actually got that vote in the House, but Republicans attached an amendment on final passage that would have eliminated all of the district’s gun laws.

I think it shows that Tom Cotton is not only ignorant about the district, and about how states become states, and what it takes to be a state. But he’s running scared. He sees the huge vote we got. He sees that some in the House of Representatives who voted for this bill are from red states. And so he held what he thought was a free press conference. But I think it only indicated the nervousness Republicans feel.

And perhaps most importantly, statehood would mean that the district would get two senators. As it is, even when I get bills passed in the House, I have to go to the Senate without any senator from the district to work with me. And yet we have more residents than two other states over there, Wyoming and Vermont.

EleanorNorton Thank you Congresswoman!

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