Lifelong Washingtonians Exist and Deserve to Be Full U.S. Citizens

By: Miriam Edelman

At a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on D.C. statehood in 2021, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) described his opposition to D.C. statehood. He said that people do not have to live in D.C.:

“Two hundred-plus years, any individual that moves to Washington, D.C., understand that Washington, D.C., is unique. This is a place where you do not have a vote for a Senator or a House member. Of the last 100 years, we have had a delegate in the House. But it has been well known that when you move to Washington, D.C., at any point you are moving to an area that does not have two Senators or a House member.”

“When I look at it, and just the  transition of this, that is a given statement for anyone that is moving. My hometown of Oklahoma City is ten times the size of Washington, D.C,, but there are still individuals that want to live in Edmond, Norman, Moore, or in Bethany, and they choose to be able to move out of Oklahoma City but still commute back and forth in other areas, to be able to work or live, because it is a choice that they make. In an area that is literally one-tenth the size of my hometown of Oklahoma City, people have options to be able to still work and to be able to travel and to be able to move into other areas. If they wanted to be able to work in Washington, D.C., many people live in Maryland, in Virginia, or in West Virginia, and drive in, to be able to here from longer distances. But that is a volitional choice. No one is compelled to actually be here, knowing that that has been the situation for more than 200 years.”

The last part literally was part of the headline of the Hill article, entitled “GOP senator on DC statehood: ‘No one is compelled to actually’ live there.”

Lankford’s remarks, as dcist reported, appears to ignore “that many Washingtonians are born and live for generations in D.C.” In 2023, 7,896 live births occurred in the nation’s capital. Most likely, many of the babies live in D.C. They did not choose to be born and live in the District of Columbia.

Some native Washingtonians, including some of its top leaders, have been here for generations. For example, D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser is a fifth-generation Washingtonian. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is a “third-generation Washingtonian.”

Lankford’s point is nonsensical. He seems to think that since people chose to live in D.C., it is okay that D.C. residents are not full citizens. Yet, no one would make this remark about other places in the United States. Generally, as the U.S. is a democracy, people would believe that no matter where individuals live, those individuals should have the rights of full citizens (i.e. – having voting representation in the U.S. Congress).

D.C. should become a state. Its native and other residents should not be forced to move to another jurisdiction just to become full U.S. citizens. D.C. residents deserve to be treated just like most other Americans.