By: Miriam Edelman
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) just replaced the recently retired Senator Tom Carper as the lead Senate sponsor of the D.C. statehood bill. Carper’s leadership was the subject of DCNOW’s blog post, entitled “Thank You, Senator Tom Carper.” This piece has many direct quotations setting out rationales supporting D.C. statehood. These quotations and their arguments can be used in advocacy.
On January 10, 2025, Van Hollen introduced S. 51 that would grant statehood to the District of Columbia. In his January 10th, press release announcing this bill, he said:
Every American should have a full vote in our country’s future, but we fall short of this promise every day that the residents of the District of Columbia are denied that right in Congress and subjected to taxation without representation. We must grant the District statehood – the people who live in our nation’s capital deserve the same basic political rights afforded to citizens across the fifty states. I’ve been proud to work with Senator Carper in the effort to deliver equality and fairness to the residents of D.C., and I look forward to carrying it forward alongside Congresswoman Norton, who has championed this fight for decades.
In that same press release, D.C.’s delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who introduced the related House H.R. 51 bill in January 2025, remarked:
Senator Van Hollen’s work and vocal support for D.C. residents’ right to voting representation in Congress and full self-government have not gone unnoticed as he has co-led the statehood effort in the Senate with Senator Carper. As he takes over primary Senate leadership of the bill, D.C. residents can be confident they have a resolute, persuasive, and trustworthy advocate for their rights in the chamber.
Those two statements were also in Norton’s office’s January 7, 2025, press release on the introduction of the two bills. The Senate bill has 39 Democratic cosponsors and one Independent cosponsor while the House bill has 161 Democratic cosponsors.
The National Organization for Women’s (NOW) political action committee (PAC) endorsed Van Hollen, writing in 2022:
NOW PAC is proud to endorse Maryland’s Chris Van Hollen for reelection to the U.S. Senate. Senator Van Hollen continuously promotes NOW’s values, including those surrounding economic justice, affordable childcare for working families, and a woman’s right to choose. We know he will be a leader in the fight for social justice, racial equity, immigration reform, and gun safety. We also recognize he is an important voice in the conversation regarding the power of dark money in politics, and how we can better safeguard our most basic Democratic institutions. We are confident that Senator Van Hollen will continue to be an essential advocate and reliable ally who will help push forth an intersectional feminist agenda.
Leadership For Years on D.C. Autonomy
During his entire Congressional career, Van Hollen has supported full Congressional voting representation for residents of the nation’s capital. In his first term as a Representatives during the 108th Congress, in 2003, he cosponsored H.R.1285 - To provide for full voting representation in Congress for the citizens of the District of Columbia, and for other purposes. At that time, D.C. was trying to acquire full Congressional voting representation via a simple legislative bill, but not statehood.
Soon before Barack Obama became President in January 2009, Van Hollen was considered a go-to-person for Congressional voting representation for D.C. The Washingtonian’s article, entitled “A Friend in the White House: Leaders in Virginia, Maryland, and DC helped Barack Obama win. Now they’re likely to get their Oval Office phone calls returned,” discussed Van Hollen’s assistance with “raising cash and helping rising politicians.” That article stated, “With Obama as president and Van Hollen a key link between the White House and Congress, a priority will be to see that the DC representative gets full voting rights.” At that time, D.C. supported the following compromise: D.C. and Utah would each get a representative in the House while D.C. would get nothing in the Senate.
For years, Van Hollen has been a strong D.C. statehood champion, cosponsoring Senate bills that would have granted D.C. statehood. Van Hollen has a history of making crucial points about D.C. statehood in his advocacy. In June 2020, after the House passed a bill that would have granted statehood to D.C., Van Hollen’s office issued a press release, entitled “Van Hollen Statement on Historic House Passage of D.C. Statehood.” The press release described Van Hollen’s strong support of D.C. autonomy, saying that Van Hollen
supported D.C. statehood from his time in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has also opposed Appropriations riders that interfere with D.C.’s right to self-governance, worked with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia to replenish the D.C. Emergency Planning and Security Fund, urged Republican leadership to treat D.C. as a state in relation to COVID-19 relief funding, and introduced legislation to ensure that D.C. maintains control of its police force and National Guard.
The press release quoted Van Hollen’s powerful call for D.C. statehood:
Today is a historic day in our nation’s capital. For far too long the people of the District of Columbia have faced taxation without representation. The District has been denied the basic right of self-governance even though its residents pay more in taxes than 22 other states – and the population of D.C. is greater than Wyoming and Vermont. The need for urgent action has been further underscored by recent events – from Republicans purposefully robbing D.C. residents of $700 million of emergency COVID-19 funding to the President’s unconstitutional crackdown against peaceful protesters. We must right this wrong.
I commend the House for taking this monumental step forward today. Now Republican Senate Majority Leader McConnell must immediately bring this bill up for Senate consideration. It’s time for Republicans to stop treating the citizens of the District of Columbia as second class citizens and recognize their Constitutional rights as Americans.
On July 1, 2020, the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee held a virtual hearing entitled, “Statehood and Equality for Washington, D.C.” At the hearing, Van Hollen emphasized the Maryland and Virginia Senators’ support of D.C. statehood,
Really thrilled to be here with my colleagues representing states that neighbor the District of Columbia from Maryland, Ben Cardin, and then, of course, Senators Kaine and Warner. I thank all of them we want to be joined by two senators from the District of Columbia to give this region even more robust representation.
Van Hollen also said “really outrageous bad faith arguments that have been made against D.C. statehood:”
The notion that D.C. residents are somehow not real people because all they know is the is the federal government shows an incredible and willful ignorance, I think, of the people of the District of Columbia, and I wish my colleagues would themselves get out about a little more get outside the Capitol and go down to see small businesses…as well as startups and entrepreneurs and restaurants whether it be U Street or other important parts of the great city we have here, and I think all my colleagues from Maryland, I know Ben Cardin, and also my big Virginia partners will tell you that really, the only difference between our constituents on different sides of the District of Columbia and Maryland border and Virgini, as well, but if you look at a towns right along the District of Columbia border with Maryland, places like Capitol Heights, Mount Rainier, and Chevy Chase, our constituents pretty much are the exact same in the sense of what drives them in the morning. The only thing that's different is that arbitrary line drawn, and on one side of the line in Maryland and Virginia, everyone's got voting rights in federal elections whereas on the DC side of the line, they don't, and that is a national disgrace.
Van Hollen called out Republican Senators for their treatment of D.C.:
It's been outrageous to see how Senators from these other states treat the District of Columbia like it's their own sort of personal political play thing, essentially imposing conditions on the people of District of Columbia they would never allow that to happen in their states. Their governors would never allow that to happen in their states, and the Mayor and the Council of the District Columbia should have all those full rights as well.
Van Hollen also remarked:
For far too long, the people of the District of Columbia have faced taxation without representation, and the need for urgent action has only been further underscored by recent events. The District has been denied the basic right of self-governance even though its residents pay more in taxes than 22 other states — and the population of D.C. is greater than Wyoming and Vermont. The message we heard today was clear – now that the House has acted, Republican Senate Majority Leader McConnell must immediately bring this bill up for Senate consideration. It’s time for Republicans to stop treating the citizens of the District of Columbia as second class citizens and recognize their most basic right to have voting representation in the Senate and House.
Exposing the U.S.’s hypocrisy regarding democracy in other countries, he said on May 25, 2021, on the Senate Floor:
We hear our colleagues on both sides of the aisle talking about the importance of democracy overseas. We criticize China rightly when it begins to snuff out the right to vote in Hong Kong. We criticize the authoritarian rulers in Belarus when they clamp down on freedom. We look around the world, and we try our best to establish a standard for standing up for the principle of democracy. We're not only not always consistent. We're not always constant in that message, but we make an effort to do that we need to look in the mirror and make that same effort right here at home. I hear so many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle talking about the importance of democracy around the world, but when it comes to granting the people the District of Columbia, the full rights of a democracy, the right to two votes in the Senate and a vote to the House, they're not there, and the people of the District of Columbia are fed up and tired of the hypocrisy.
During the same Floor speech, Van Hollen highlighted how D.C.’s status contradicts a principle of the U.S. revolution: “A founding principle of our revolution was the idea that nobody should be subject to taxation without representation.” He added, “The people of District of Columbia pay higher taxes than those in 22 other states, and yet, they don't have a vote in the House or two senators to represent them.”
While speaking on the Senate Floor, Van Hollen also directly rejected the claim that D.C. statehood is a Democratic party power grab:
This is not a partisan issue. We know it shouldn't be. We know that if every member put on a blindfold and just said the people of District of Columbia deserve a vote without thinking of the political outcome, the people of District of Columbia would have a state.
He clearly stated the big issue of D.C. statehood:
The real concern, as we know is that the people of District of Columbia will cast votes for Representatives in the House and Senate that they think best reflect their interest, and they believe that in the current situation, those seats will go to Democratic members in the Senate and the House, and as my colleagues have said the District of Columbia is comprised of a majority of people of color, and the senator from Virginia talked about the history of that having been impediment to the admission of some other states in the past before the country did the right thing.
Van Hollen also made compelling points when he was one of the Senators speaking at a press conference in January 2023, announcing a bill that would grant D.C. statehood. While flanked by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Senator Tom Carper, Van Hollen tied D.C. autonomy to January 6, 2021:
It's wrong because we are the world's oldest democracy, and yet, the people who live in the capital of our democracy don't have the same political rights as everybody else in the country. That's wrong, and if you think back to January 6, 2021, …that fateful day here on the Capitol, when our Capitol was under attack, when our democracy was under attack, the Capitol Police responded, but so did the Metropolitan Police. The Metropolitan Police put their lives on the line to protect this Capitol and to protect this democracy, and yet, the men and women of the Metropolitan Police who live in the District of Columbia were not able to vote for a member of the House or the members of the Senate that they were protecting as part of protecting our democracy, and that's shameful.
Van Hollen also opposes Congressional interference in local D.C. affairs. At the same January 2023 press conference, he criticized Congressional micromanagement of D.C., which he connected to D.C. statehood:
If you look at what's happening in the House right now, you have members of this very right-wing Republican majority who are actually talking about further dragging us backwards. The head of the House Oversight Committee has talked about even more
micromanagement from the house of the people who live in the District of Columbia. I would suggest that these Members of Congress should have their hands full dealing with their own Congressional districts and other issues in the country rather than trying to dictate to the people of the District of Columbia and impose their will over the will of the Mayor and members of the Council who are elected by the people of the District of Columbia, and we will fight that effort, and we will prevent them from taking us backwards, but the only way to assure that we move forward on a permanent basis is to grant D.C statehood to make sure that those D.C. residents who go to war to defend the country, who pay those taxes, who defend the Capitol, that they have a full voting member in the House of Representatives and two voting Senators as part of statehood.
When he helped reintroduce S.51 - Washington, D.C. Admission Act on January 24, 2023, his office issued a press release, entitled “Van Hollen, Carper Reintroduce Bill to Grant Statehood to the District of Columbia.” In that press release, he said:
It is a national scandal that the people who live in the capital of the oldest democracy in the world have fewer political rights than those who live outside it. Simply put, denying the people of the District of Columbia the same rights to voting representation in the House and Senate enjoyed by other citizens is undemocratic. It’s time to grant the District statehood, end taxation without representation, and deliver equality and fairness to its residents.
Van Hollen’s Senate’s website page, entitled “Voting Rights,” specifically mentions Washington, D.C., and his support for D.C. statehood:
Senator Van Hollen also believes that a strong democracy represents the voices of all the people, including those who live in our nation’s capital. For far too long, the people of the District of Columbia have been denied their right of self-governance and have faced taxation without representation. The people who reside in D.C. must be given the same basic political rights afforded to citizens in the fifty states: the right to send their representatives and senators to vote on their behalf in the House and Senate. Senator Van Hollen believes that we must grant the District statehood, now, and he is leading the fight to get it done.
Opposition to Congressional Interference With D.C.’s Crime and Policing Bills
Van Hollen sided with D.C. when Congress opposed D.C.’s crime and policing bills in 2023. When the Senate in 2023 took up resolutions to prevent D.C.-passed bills from becoming law, he voted against them, siding with D.C. DCNOW’s pieces, entitled “Fears-Turned Reality: Congress and the District of Columbia in 2023 So Far” and “D.C.’s Policing Bill Becomes Law After a Veto by President Joe Biden,” discussed the anti-D.C. resolutions. On March 8, 2023, Van Hollen was one of just 14 Senators (all Democrats or Independent caucusing with Democrats) who voted against H.J.Res. 26, regarding D.C.’s crime bill. The Senate passed H.J.Res. 26 with a vote of 81 Yeas, 14 Nays, one Present, and one not voting.
Soon before that vote, Van Hollen posted the following on X:
“DC deserves statehood. But until that happens, I won’t stopping fighting for the right to self-determination & full democracy for the people of the District.
I'm speaking on the Senate floor about why I'm voting NO on this resolution. Tune in: https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1RDxlaZNoqqKL”
During his Senate speech on H.J.Res 26, he reiterated his strong support of D.C. residents and D.C. statehood while standing up for democracy in D.C. He remarked that D.C. statehood is “a fight not only for voting representation in the House and the Senate, but also for the principle of local autonomy, the principle of self-determination also known as Home Rule.” He continued:
In my view, this resolution is an attack on the democratic rights of the people of District of Columbia, which has its own duly elected democratic representatives, the Mayor and the D.C. Council. Its residents, its citizens are fully capable of deciding their own law and deciding their own future. The Congress should not be overriding the will of the people…of DC as reflected in their elected representatives. This process of directly overruling a law passed by the District of Columbia has not been used for 30 years, not for 30 years, and we should not start it now.
As Van Hollen said soon after, “No other jurisdiction in the United States of America has its laws subject to veto by the United States Congress.” He added:
No one here would appreciate the United States Senate and House of Representatives interfering and overturning decisions made by their state representatives or their local representatives even if we might disagree with some of those decisions from time to time, and yet, that is what we are doing to the people of the District of Columbia having elected their representatives the Mayor and the Council to represent them. We must ensure that the people who live in the capital of the world's oldest democracy have the same democratic rights as the people who live in every other part of the country.
On May 16, 2023, Van Hollen was one of 43 Senators (all Democrats or Independent caucusing with Democrats) who voted against H.J.Res. 42, which was about D.C.’s policing bill. The Senate passed H.J.Res. 42 with a vote of 56 Yea, 43 Nay, zero Present, and one not voting.
Key Ally On Other D.C. Issues
Van Hollen has also been a key Senate ally on other D.C. issues. As Eleanor Holmes Norton’s (D-DC) office wrote in its February 18, 2021, press release, entitled “Norton Congratulates D.C. Statehood Champion Van Hollen on Appointment as Chair of D.C. Appropriations Subcommittee,”
In his role as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Van Hollen has tirelessly advocated for equal federal funding and home rule for the District. Last month, days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Van Hollen and Norton reiterated their call for Congress to fully fund the District's emergency planning and security fund (EPSF) in the future, including the $80 million the EPSF was shortchanged in the enacted fiscal year 2021 D.C. appropriations bill. Van Hollen also fought to provide D.C. $755 million in retroactive CARES Act fiscal relief to fix D.C.'s treatment as a territory instead of a state for fiscal relief in the CARES Act.
Last month, Van Hollen and Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) reintroduced the D.C. statehood bill, the D.C. National Guard Home Rule Act, which would give the District's mayor control over the D.C. National Guard, and the D.C. Police Home Rule Act, which would repeal the President's authority to federalize the D.C. police department.
Recognition as Leader on D.C. Autonomy
In December 2022, DC Vote gave Van Hollen its Champion of Democracy award. In a press release announcing this honor, DC Vote wrote: “Senator Van Hollen has been a huge champion of voting rights, including co-sponsoring S. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act. His steady leadership has moved the ball forward on DC Statehood.” Van Hollen responded:
Our democracy isn’t guaranteed. It works only if we believe in it, participate in it, and commit to strengthening it so that it better reflects the will of all Americans. And a part of that important mission is ensuring that all voices across our nation have full, fair, and equal representation – including citizens in the District of Columbia.
I stand with DC Vote in the fight for representation for the people of the District, and I’m humbled to accept their Champion of Democracy Award. We’re in this fight together to make sure all our citizens have voting representation at all levels of government, and we won’t give up until we succeed.
Closing Thoughts
Here’s to hoping that D.C. finally becomes a state during Van Hollen’s leadership. He should be the final Senate lead sponsor of D.C. statehood because D.C. should become a state once and for all. As Van Hollen said in the January 2021 press conference:
We will keep pulling and pushing in until we make sure that the people of the District of Columbia have justice, and that means statehood. So, we're going to keep the March going. We will prevail. We will prevail.
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