Presidents’ Day is Reminder of Prior Strong Bipartisan Support for D.C. Residents

By: Miriam Edelman

Presidents’ Day, which was named Washington’s Birthday to honor the nation’s first President George Washington, was February 17, 2025. The only federal officials D.C. residents can vote for are President and Vice President. Unlike U.S citizens who live in the nation’s fifty states, U.S. citizens who live in Washington, D.C., do not have voting representation in Congress.

At the start of the nation’s history, residents of what is now D.C. voted for President and for Members of Congress as residents of Maryland or Virginia depending on where they lived. D.C. was created from parts of Maryland and Virginia. In 1801, Congress incorporated the District of Columbia through the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801. Since residents of the new D.C. no longer were residents of Maryland and Virginia, they lost their voting rights. Then, for over 150 years, D.C. residents could not vote for the U.S. President since the Constitution gave the right to vote for Members of Congress and the President/Vice President solely to states.

D.C. residents gained votes in the Electoral College, which elects the President and Vice President, through the 23rd Amendment, which says:

Section 1

The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

Section 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

In practical terms, D.C. has three votes in the Electoral College.

The 23rd Amendment was in response to the civil rights movement. At that time, the District of Columbia’s population was majority African-American. The Amendment, with bipartisan support, was given Congressional approval on June 17, 1960. DCNOW’s blog piece, entitled “Blast from the Past: Republicans Supported Washington, D.C., Autonomy,” discussed Republicans’ support of the amendment.

The political party platforms of both Democrats and Republicans of 1960 called for voting rights for D.C. residents. The Democratic Party Platform said:

District of Columbia

The capital city of our nation should be a symbol of democracy to people throughout the world. The Democratic Party reaffirms its long-standing support of home rule for the District of Columbia, and pledges to enact legislation permitting voters of the District to elect their own local government.

We urge the legislatures of the 50 states to ratify the 23rd Amendment, passed by the Democratic Congress, to give District citizens the right to participate in Presidential elections.

We also support a Constitutional amendment giving the District voting representation in Congress.

The Republican Party Platform supported D.C.: “Republicans will continue to work for Congressional representation and self-government for the District of Columbia and also support the constitutional amendment granting suffrage in national elections.”

Within less than a year, on March 29, 1961, the 23rd Amendment had been ratified by enough states, as Ohio became the 38th state to approve it. Only one other amendment, the 12th Amendment that created the current version of the Electoral College, was ratified more quickly. On March 29, 1961, the 23rd Amendment went into effect.

Notably, the Amendment, which was relatively uncontroversial, was not ratified in the majority of the South. Tennessee was the only former Confederate state to approve the Amendment. However, Alabama was one of the two states to ratify the Amendment after enough states ratified it. Arkansas was the only state to reject the Amendment. Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, North Carolina, and Virginia did not take action on the Amendment.

The Amendment took effect during the 1964 Presidential elections. Thus, D.C. residents first voted for President in the 1964 elections and have voted in a total of 15 Presidential elections, which were for Presidents #36 through #47.

The U.S. came together to grant electoral votes to D.C. residents, who still do not have Congressional voting representation. The nation can unite again and make D.C. residents full citizens by granting statehood to the District of Columbia. Granting statehood could be easier, as many think a Constitutional amendment would not be necessary. All non-13 original colony states became states through Congressional bills. Thus, some think that a Constitutional amendment is not necessary for D.C. statehood, as it has never been the process used to admit new states.