This blog was written by Thomas Tai and Nile Blass of LWVUS and Anne Anderson of LWVDC.

Over 700,000 Americans live within Washington, DC’s borders – that's a greater population than in either Wyoming or Vermont. In terms of political representation, the District has three electoral votes, granted via the Twenty-Third Amendment in 1961. Locally, its voters elect a Mayor and District of Columbia Council.  

Washingtonians reflect the diversity of the United States, with 40.9% of residents being Black, 38% being White, and 11.3% being Hispanic/Latino. DC’s status as a majority-Black and brown city is a point of pride for many residents. 

On the surface, it appears the District is like the rest of America. If only that were true. 

Since its founding, the people of the District have not enjoyed the same rights as other Americans.  To this day, they have no Senators or Representatives in Congress. Instead, the District is given a single, non-voting Delegate (currently, Eleanor Norton Holmes) who has no vote on passage of any legislation, even if it greatly affects the lives of all District residents. As a result, Washingtonians are expected to bear the burdens and duties of citizenship and obedience to the laws while having no say in their creation, a major inequity in a republic that purports to stand for liberty and justice for all.   

This blog will examine the background of this inequality and feature the voices of LWVDC members and District residents who are currently undergoing illegitimate occupation by National Guard troops because of their lack of statehood.  

The District’s Origins 

After the success of the American Revolution in 1783, the new nation was faced with severe challenges. Many of the soldiers who fought in the revolution had gone unpaid due to the national government’s post-war financial troubles. In June 1783, hundreds of disgruntled soldiers marched upon Congress, then headquartered in Philadelphia, demanding they be paid. John Dickinson, then governor of Pennsylvania, refused to call the militia to defend Congress, forcing Congress to flee across the Delaware River to New Jersey.  

After that near-disaster, several framers of the Constitution came to believe that the federal government needed a capital it could control directly, without being dependent on a state government for protection. In Federalist Number 43, James Madison described this logic as follows:  

“The indispensable necessity of [complete] authority at the seat of government, carries its own evidence with it. […] Without it, not only the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings be interrupted, with impunity; but a dependence of the members of the general government on the state, comprehending the seat of the government for protection in the exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence, equally dishonorable to the government, and dissatisfactory to the other members of the confederacy.” 

Put simply, Madison asserted that without a seat of government directly controlled by the federal government, the state in which the national capital was located could exert undue influence on the government and cause discord among the other states. It’s important to note that at the time, the federal government could not call upon any sizable standing army. The Continental Army, which won the nation’s independence, had disbanded, and the new nation had a very small permanent military force. 

Madison also provided explicitly that the people of this new federal district would have local government, stating, “they will have had their voice in the election of the government which is to exercise authority over them; as a municipal legislature for local purposes, derived from their own suffrages, will of course be allowed them.” 

In 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which officially moved the nation’s capital from Philadelphia to Washington, DC, starting in December 1800, where it has remained to this day. 

District Government Then and Now  

Since its founding, governance of the District has taken various forms. Soon after the capital was moved to Washington, DC, Congress created several committees to govern the District; these committees have changed or been abolished over time. Congress’s involvement in the District’s affairs has also waxed and waned, with greater involvement including the emancipation of enslaved Washingtonians in 1862, and battles over the desegregation of ​​District schools.  

Eventually, in 1973, Congress passed the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which created a thirteen-member council and an elected mayoralty and allowed the District’s local government to enact “all rightful subjects of legislation within the District” so long as it was consistent with the United States Constitution and the Home Rule Act.  

Currently, Congress has ultimate authority over the District, with the ability to override local laws by statute. This means that a representative from Texas or California could propose a bill to change local laws in the District and have it take effect upon signature, regardless of opposition from local residents or officials, and without the consent of the District's elected non-voting delegate.​​ 

Washington, DC, and the National Guard  

Having discussed the structure of the District’s government, we now turn to the DC National Guard. In 1802, the National Guard was created by President Thomas Jefferson to protect the federal government. It's important to note, again, that at the time, the United States Army was tiny, and the main military force in the country consisted of the various state militias. The DC National Guard is the only National Guard unit that is commanded directly by the President instead of a state governor.  

And here lies the problem with Washington, DC’s status: in the 50 states, residents have a vote on who makes and executes the law. The Tenth Amendment provides that the federal government is one of limited powers and that, in some areas, it cannot directly override state laws. 

By contrast, the people of DC do not have such protection. Voters in the District do not have two Senators and Representatives who can act on their behalf in Congress. What they have instead is a Congress they didn’t vote for deciding whether to override laws passed by their elected officials, and a National Guard paid for by their tax dollars, with no governor armed with state sovereignty to push back on its illegal use. This latest occupation of DC is a continuation of that dynamic.   

The current method of governing Washington, DC, no longer fits the people’s needs. The original reasons that underpinned the District’s status no longer apply. The threat we face is not states controlling the federal government, but rather the federal government oppressing the people. Everyone who lives within our nation deserves the same basic rights. Washington, DC, should be a state, and the people of the District should have equitable federal representation. 

In the midst of law and history, we should not forget about the people of Washington, DC. This blog is not just about statehood and law, but also about them, and how occupation affects their lives. Below, one DC resident shares her experience. 

A Personal Plea

From Anne Anderson, Chair of the LWVDC Committee for Full Rights for DC Citizens: 

When I arrived in Washington, DC, in August of 1964, the people of DC were very excitedly getting ready to vote for president for the first time since 1801. As a newly graduated history major, I saw this as a first step in the re-establishment of full democracy in our nation’s capital. The nation’s next steps, allowing limited Home Rule, appointing a non-voting Delegate to the House, and engaging in ongoing successful efforts to improve our self-governance, were all hopeful signs.   

Now, in 2025, we see masked federal agents grabbing people off the street with little or no due process, and National Guard members patrolling our streets and Metro stops (or being tasked to pick up trash and mulch beds in federal parks). We had kids out for Trick-or-Treating on Halloween, but on my block, parents shepherded groups of them while helicopters once again droned overhead. More than 50 bills interfering with DC Home Rule have been introduced in Congress–death to self-governance by a thousand cuts. The loss of our sense of safety and the lack of control over our government and our lives is devastating after so many years of growing hope that we would eventually gain our full citizenship.   

Here in DC, subject to the whims of members of Congress and the President, we understand that, because we are not a state, we can be used as a testing ground for authoritarian actions that can then be carried out more easily in the 50 states. We also know that even as we work to protect what limited self-government we have, the remedy is for the residential and commercial parts of DC to be admitted as a state, while a smaller area remains the seat of our national government. And we know that the people who live in the 50 states are the ones who can make this happen. They have Representatives and Senators who can vote to end 225 years of voter suppression by admitting the state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth. 

How to Support DC

• Sign our petition in support of DC Statehood and ask your friends to sign too!
• Contact your member of Congress and let them know you support DC Statehood.
• Keep up to date with lwvdc.substack.com (just click on “subscribe later”)
• Schedule a screening of “The Last Battlefront: Quest for the Vote in Washington, DC for your community. Help us educate folks!
• Check out these action resources from Free DC: Occupation Action Resources
• Share the above actions with your community!