5 notable provisions in the Democratic Party platform
5. Calls for adding several new states into the Union
In the earliest months of the Biden presidency, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill that would have granted statehood to the District of Columbia. While the District of Columbia is not a state with its own senators and a representative in the House, it has three electoral votes in the Electoral College, thereby playing a role in the election of the U.S. president.
As noted in the Democrats’ platform, the bill to grant D.C. statehood stalled in the Senate: “We unequivocally support statehood for D.C., which its residents overwhelmingly support but Republicans blocked from even getting a vote in the Senate.”
Washington, D.C., votes overwhelmingly Democratic in presidential elections. In the 2020 presidential election, Biden received 92.1% of the vote there while former President Donald Trump secured just 5.4%. With this in mind, the two new U.S. senators that would represent the constituency if it was granted statehood would almost certainly be Democrats. Considering its population of 689,545, as measured in the 2020 U.S. Census, D.C. would likely have one representative in the House.
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Similarly, the platform expresses support for the Puerto Rico Status Act, which would grant statehood to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. If enacted, two U.S. senators would represent the territory in Congress. Based on its population of 3,285,874, Puerto Rico would likely have four representatives in the House.
The platform also includes a vow to “create a congressional task force to study equal voting rights and House representation” for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. Currently, all six territories mentioned in the document have non-voting delegates in the House.
American Samoa is represented by Republican Amata Coleman Radewagen, D.C. is represented by Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, Guam is represented by Republican James Moylan, the Northern Mariana Islands are represented by Democrat Gregorio Sablan and the U.S. Virgin Islands are represented by Democrat Stacey Plaskett. Puerto Rico has a non-voting Resident Commissioner in the House, Republican Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon.
Since American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands all have populations of less than 200,000, it is all but guaranteed that they would each receive one vote in House if admitted. Two senators would represent each of the new states, bringing the number of additional senators from the six new states to 12. The total number of new members of the House would likely be nine.
Unlike the District of Columbia, the other five territories do not vote in presidential elections, making it difficult to predict their partisan leanings with certainty. However, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands all have Democratic governors, while the Northern Mariana Islands have an independent governor.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
