© Provided by Washington Examiner Having 50 states in the United States is not good enough for Democrats anymore. They want to expand their power by giving both Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico statehood. Washington already has three electoral votes in presidential elections but no representation in the Senate or House of Representatives. Meanwhile, Puerto Rico has neither as a U.S. territory.
The reason Democrats push for statehood is clear: If Washington was a state, all of its congressmen would be Democrats, as would its two senators. Meanwhile, Democrats may also win big in Puerto Rico because the national Republican Party tends not to fare well there.
There are plenty of reasons why neither should become a state and why statehood probably won't happen anytime soon, such as the filibuster. However, Democrats could give Puerto Rico and Washington more say in the country's future by solving a problem some in the party already want to fix: the order of their presidential primaries and caucuses.
The Democratic Party apparently cares little about who Washington and Puerto Rico want as the next president. Last year, their primaries came in June and July, respectively. Puerto Rico's was originally set for March 29 and postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but President Biden was already the presumptive nominee by then.
Democrats such as former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez and former Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada, among others, argue that Iowa and New Hampshire are too white to be the first caucus and primary in the country, respectively. Political parties are private organizations, so the Democratic Party should hold caucuses and primaries in whichever order it would like. If Democrats want to give Washington and Puerto Rico representation, why not make them first and second in the primary for voting?
During a hearing on D.C. statehood on Monday, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser called D.C. statehood "one of the remaining glaring civil rights issues of our time," while Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, said that "D.C. statehood is a racial-justice issue."
If the Democratic Party wants minorities to have more say in who ends up being its nominee, then Puerto Rico and Washington are two great places to start. Most Puerto Ricans are Hispanic, and Spanish is their first language. Meanwhile, Washington has one the highest black populations as a percentage of its population among U.S. states and territories. While Hispanics are not a monolith and neither are black Americans, Democrats could see how some black and Hispanic Americans feel about their candidates.
Because there are probably not 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to make D.C. a state, the Democratic Party should focus on what it can control. The presidential primary is one of those things, and it is the most realistic way to help improve Washington's representation in the federal government.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a freelance writer who has been published with USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other media outlets.
Tags: Opinion, Beltway Confidential, Blog Contributors, DC Statehood, Democratic Party, Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., Elections
Original Author: Tom Joyce
Original Location: Forget statehood. Democrats should let DC hold the first presidential primary