June 26 will be a historic day in Congressional and District of Columbia record, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- California) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D- Maryland) announced that is the day when the House will vote on D.C. statehood.
Pelosi, Hoyer, D.C.’s Representative to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) and District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, as well as other local officials, stood proudly endorsing the fight for D.C. as it creeps closer to the House floor.
With becoming the 51st state, known as the Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, D.C. statehood would also allow for residents to elect two voting Senators and one voting Representative to Congress.
Although D.C. is the nation’s capital, Mayor Bowser and other officials noted that being a predominantly Black (46.4 percent) and leftward leaning city relates to a larger issue of racial justice in the fight for D.C. statehood.
While many Democratic leaders have been vocally supportive of D.C. statehood, and with the bill itself having 220 co-sponsors, it is likely to pass in the House, however, it might be different story in the majority Republican Senate.
