Thank You, Senator Tom Carper

By: Miriam Edelman

The D.C. statehood community is losing a key Senate champion, as Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) retires and leaves office next month. DCNOW’s President Rose Brunache said, “Thank you so much to Senator Carper for his leadership on D.C. statehood. As he said, D.C. statehood is ‘an issue of fairness and equality.’”

Carper has been a strong advocate for Washington, D.C. In 2013, Carper took over leadership on D.C. statehood issues from the retiring Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) when Lieberman left office. In 2014, Carper, chairing the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, held the first Congressional hearing on D.C. statehood in two decades. He said, “In my view, this situation is simply not fair. Neither is it consistent with our values as a country,” and “Perhaps most importantly, though, it’s not consistent with the Golden Rule: treat other people the way we want to be treated.” As he said, “My goal for this hearing is to educate a new generation of people about this injustice and restart the conversation about finding a more thoughtful solution.” In 2021, Carper helped lead another full Senate committee hearing on D.C. statehood. Since 2013, Carper has also been the lead sponsor of the Senate’s bill that would grant statehood to Washington, D.C.

Carper stressed the non-political nature of D.C. statehood, rejecting the notion that D.C. statehood is just a Democratic party power-grab. As he said, D.C. statehood is “an issue of basic fairness. This Congress will continue making the case to my Republican colleagues, the [sic] D.C. statehood is not a Republican or Democratic issue, but an issue of fairness and equality.” In 2021, he said,

Our nation’s capital is home to more than 700,000 Americans who, despite our nation’s founding mantra — ‘no taxation without representation’ — pay their share of taxes without full voting representation in either chamber of Congress. In fact, despite paying more in federal taxes per capita than citizens of any of the 50 states, D.C. residents have no say in how those taxes are actually spent. This isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue; it’s an American issue because the lack of fair representation for D.C. residents is clearly inconsistent with the values on which this country was founded. It is therefore incumbent upon all of us who enjoy the right and the privilege of full voting rights and representation to take up the cause of our fellow citizens in the District of Columbia. We must use our voices to call out this historic injustice and right this wrong.

Let’s honor Carper by finally making D.C. a state. It might not happen in the next few years, but we can never give up.