With a higher percentage of African-American residents than any state (47.2%), it is easy to see why the GOP opposes DC statehood. Whereas their political calculation that the two senators and one house member from the new state would be Democratic is almost certainly correct, GOP opposition to statehood is simply a continuation of that party’s decades long project of disenfranchising people of color.

The project of DC statehood is vitally important, not only for the sake of the 700,000 citizens of the District without voting representation in Congress, but also for urban communities across the nation. The Senate is broken, intentionally tilted in favor of maintaining rural, white power at the expense of dense, diverse cities. According to the structure of the Senate, Wyoming’s 580,000 residents have the same amount of power as California’s 40 million. In the event of statehood, DC’s two senators would in effect act as an urban proxy vote, adding two Senators and one congressperson uniquely tuned in to the issues facing contemporary American cities. DC would be a city-state, a powerful federal advocate for cities across the nation.

While the voters of DC did not ask to be put in this position, the two senators from the Douglass Commonwealth (as the state would be known) would do much towards balancing the Senate away from extremist revanchism of the GOP. In the absence of a complete overhaul of the Senate (which will at some point be necessary), DC statehood is a critical measure which will both enable self-determination for the residents of the District itself, as well as enable cities across the nation to have a greater voice in the federal government.