D.C. statehood faces an uphill climb through the Senate without killing the filibuster.
House Democrats are poised to pass D.C. statehood legislation for the second time in less than a year—though it will likely flame out again in the Senate, despite support from a majority of Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden, unless there’s an overhaul of the filibuster. Sen. Lindsey Graham called the legislation a “power grab”: “The District of Columbia was established as a neutral venue to conduct the affairs of the nation. It was not set up to be an independent state and should not be one today. This is a brazen power grab by the Democratic Party to change the makeup of Congress.” In 2016,79% of D.C. residents voted in favor of a ballot measure to become the 51st state, but it wasn’t for four more years in June 2020 that the House of Representatives passed legislation for D.
