YES on DC Statehood: 700,000 Americans Pay Taxes Without Representation

I am writing to demand that you support immediate statehood for Washington, D.C. Over 700,000 Americans live in our nation's capital without congressional representation while paying federal taxes at the highest per capita rate in the country. This violates the founding principle that sparked our revolution: no taxation without representation. The facts expose the hypocrisy. D.C. residents pay more federal taxes per capita than any state and contribute more total federal taxes than 19 states. DC has more people than Wyoming (584,000) or Vermont (649,000), yet those states each get two senators and a voting House member while D.C. gets none. A Wyoming voter has 89 times more Senate representation than a D.C. resident. Recent attempts to deny statehood using crime fear-mongering rely on false information. D.C.'s homicide rate fell 19% in the first half of 2025, and violent crime hit a 30-year low (Council on Criminal Justice, August 2025). Crime expert Jeff Asher confirms "amass of evidence pointing to declining violent crime in DC in 2025." Using debunked crime statistics to deny democratic rights to 700,000 taxpayers is unconscionable. D.C. operates like a state in every meaningful way. They run their own schools, manage Medicaid, and maintain a AAA bond rating higher than 35 states. DC has balanced its budget for over 20 years using local revenue, not federal handouts. More than 8,000 D.C. residents serve in the military, defending democracy abroad while being denied full democratic participation at home. The constitutional path is straightforward. Proposed legislation carves out federal buildings as the required federal district while granting statehood to residential areas. This is exactly how 37 states joined the Union. D.C. voters approved statehood 86% to 14% in 2016. I demand you vote YES on the Washington D.C. Admission Act. End this 220-year injustice.