The GOP and DC statehood – Why do Republicans hate the idea so much?

Every now and then, the subject of statehood for the District of Columbia comes up, and whenever it does, GOP politicians in DC go into an absolute frenzy in opposition to the idea. The reason they give in their fundraising efforts (they use everything that happens as an excuse to ask for donations – as do the Democrats) is that this means two more Democratic senators, which, to hear them tell it, would mean the end of civilization as we know it.  It would also mean a shuffling of seats in the House of Representatives, where they are apportioned based on census results every ten years through an arcane formulation to decide how many of the 435 seats (authorized since 1989) go to each state. After every census (every 10 years) some states lose seats and others gain. With a population of 689,543 after the 2020 census, DC, should it become a state, would have more people than Vermont and Wyoming and would be on a par with sates like Delaware and Alaska. It has more people than any other state had at time of admission to the Union except Oklahoma. So, the way seats are determined, it would automatically get one seat in the House, and then seats number 52 to 435 would be apportioned based on population, which might give it one additional seat.

 

That’s four more Democrats on the Hill, which scares the crap out of Republicans who have a slim majority in the House currently, and who wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever winning one of the DC positions in the House or the Senate for that matter.

 

So, there’s good reason for Republicans to be worried about DC becoming a state. But, this is not the only reason DC concerns them, and has concerned them for the longest time.

 

Like many of the major urban areas in this country, DC has a large minority population and a large immigrant population, and tends to support the Democratic party. Not only do GOP pols object to DC statehood, many of them even object to self-rule (they appear to feel the same about big cities all over the country that tend to be Democratic-led even in states where Republicans control the state government). In Texas, for example, the GOP state government has taken over the school system in Democratic-controlled Houston, and in Mississippi, the state government has financially starved one of its largest cities which happens to have a Democratic city administration.

 

What’s the other thing that DC, Houston, and some other deep-south cities like Atlanta, Georgia have in common? Their city governments are controlled by African Americans.

 

Many people don’t know this, but in 1820, Congress, which had control of the District, amended the city charter to allow White men to vote for mayor, but in 1867, after the Civil War, when Black men were given the right to vote, southern Democrats in Congress revoked the right to vote for everyone. They would rather deprive everyone of the right to vote rather than allow Blacks the franchise. Keep in mind; during this period Democrats were doing what today’s Republicans do—deprived anyone who didn’t look like them of most rights.

 

Harry Truman, a Democrat, proposed home rule and the right to vote for president for DC residents, a proposal supported by his successor, Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican, but neither proposal could make it past the southern-dominated House District Committee. DC residents finally got the right to vote for president in 1961, but still no home rule.  Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, tried, but failed, and one of the staunchest opponents of home rule was Republican House Minority Leader Gerald Ford, who was vice president in 1973 when Richard Nixon finally signed the law giving DC residents the right to elect their own mayor and city government.

 

You might think that was the end of it, but you’d be wrong. By 1974, the GOP was firmly on the path it’s on now and civil and voting rights for the nation’s minorities was not high on its agenda.

 

The House still reserves the right to veto any legislation the DC city council passes, and has done so recently, and some in Congress have even introduced legislation (which fortunately got nowhere) to repeal home rule.

 

I leave it to readers to make what you will of this situation, but submit that worrying about the number of Democrats in the House and Senate is not the primary reason Republicans oppose DC statehood—not by a long shot.