Arizona has good cause to support statehood for DC
When I was first elected in 2015, I was the only Black lawmaker at the Arizona Legislature. Quickly, I was inundated with calls and letters from Blacks from all over the state, who saw my presence at the Capitol as representation for all Black Arizonans, not just my constituents in District 27.
Just as quickly, I came to see the importance of that representation.
I can’t help but think about the over 700,000 mostly Black and brown Washington, D.C. residents who don’t have anywhere to turn when things get tough; no representative to vote on legislation for them in Congress.
For over two hundred years, the residents of Washington, D.C. have been locked out of our democracy without a vote in Congress despite being home to the U.S. Capitol. Now, they’re closer to statehood than they’ve ever been, but progress is precarious.
I call on our Arizona congressional delegation to take up the cause and move us toward a more just, representative democracy.
The district’s path to statehood, in a lot of ways, is not unlike Arizona’s. In the late 1800s, Arizonans had to pay federal taxes, despite having no representation in Congress, and this frustration helped fuel our own fight for statehood. But our fight was relatively quick.
More than two centuries after revolutionaries dumped tea in the Boston Harbor to protest taxation without representation, Washington, D.C. pays more per capita in federal taxes than any other state, despite having no say in how those tax dollars are spent.
A few years before Arizona and New Mexico admitted as separate states, a proposal in Congress would have combined them into one. This left Arizonans feeling shortchanged of the representation we deserved — leading to the independent streak we’re so famous for. Today, there are some who would have Washington, D.C. “retrocede” into Maryland, depriving residents of the district the independent representation they deserve.
Even living on the other side of the country, as Arizonans (and as Americans), we should care about Washington, D.C. statehood. Any time we fail to call out injustice or disenfranchisement, it is a betrayal of our values.
We have an obligation to call out inequity wherever it may lie. The district’s mostly racial-minority residents lack a voice on some of the most pressing issues of our day.
Thus, the injustice we see in Washington, D.C. is a racial justice issue and a civil rights issue. The disenfranchisement of the district’s people is inextricably linked to the fact that, when it becomes a state, it will be the first plurality Black state in the country.
Those who say statehood represents a “power grab” by Democrats are being disingenuous. It’s not a Democrat or Republican
issue, it’s a democracy issue. The Black and brown residents of the district deserve representation in our politics, period.
Justice for Washington, D.C. in the form of statehood is far from a foregone conclusion because many in power wield structural loopholes like the filibuster to cut off access to democracy.
Much like it was for Arizona for the majority of our own statehood struggle, not that long ago, the district’s residents effectively have no power. They are relying on people like us to have their back, elevate their voices and put our belief in American values like equality and democracy into actions.
In Arizona, we are better off because we are a state where we can work together to solve big problems. Washington, D.C. deserves the same representation, and it’s up to us and our leaders in Congress to deliver that for them.