Hillary Clinton: “That’s why, as president, I will be a vocal champion for D.C. statehood.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Ted Eytan

From an Op-ed in the Washington Informer:

“Washington, D.C., is home to nearly 700,000 Americans – more than the entire population of several states. Washingtonians serve in the military, serve on juries and pay taxes just like everyone else. And yet they don’t even have a vote in Congress.

Hard as it is to believe, America is the only democracy on the planet that treats the residents of capital this way.

Lacking representatives with voting power, the District of Columbia is often neglected when it comes to federal appropriations. Many of the District’s decisions are also at the mercy of right-wing ideologues in Congress, and as you can imagine, they don’t show very much of it. Everything from commonsense gun laws to providing women’s health care and efforts to cut down on drug abuse has been halted by Republicans, who claim the District is an exception to their long-held notion that communities ought to be able to govern themselves.

Solidarity is no longer enough. We need a solution.

That’s why, as president, I will be a vocal champion for D.C. statehood.

Washingtonians are Americans, too, and it’s time they had a say in their own status.”