Future of the District: Should DC become 51st State or Douglass County, Md.?
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — It seems like everywhere you turn in the Nation’s Capital there are reminders of the DC statehood movement, poised to make noise Thursday during a Congressional hearing decades in the making.
“We have 219 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. It’s the most on a statehood bill in history,” says Bo Shuff with DC Vote
Tuesday afternoon staunch statehood supporters unveiled a new mural in Southeast DC titled “Statehood” by Nessar Jahanbin, featuring city icons Petey Greene, former Mayor Marion Barry and present Member of Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Ty Hobson-Powell with 51 for 51 says, “We deserve representation. We do. We matter. In 2019 it is a travesty that we have almost a million citizens in the nation’s capital who do not get to participate in the democracy that surrounds them.”
Coincidentally, less than an hour before this mural was revealed, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, the unrelenting leader of this movement on Capitol Hill, faced a new challenge.
DC resident David Krucoff walked into the Federal Election Commissioner in DC to begin the process of running against Holmes Norton as an independent. He agrees that DC deserves voting rights.
Krucoff says, “It’s disgusting that the residents of the District of Columbia are not whole politically. We are second class citizens by law and that has to change.”
But he’s running for office because he thinks statehood is not politically feasible right now. He prefers folding the District into a new Maryland jurisdiction called Douglass County.
“If we get behind Douglass County, Maryland we will win,” says Krucoff.
Those leading the fight for statehood are profoundly skeptical of Krucoff’s plan, which is also known as retrocession.
Hobson-Powell says, “We can’t allow that to go because I think social progress doesn’t move in favor of convenience. It’s moves in favor of what’s right.”
DC statehood supporters believe too much time and energy has been spent supporting their movement to give their beloved city to Maryland.
