Statement from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on DC Statehood Day.

I am very sorry that I can’t be with you today in person, but I am writing to express my passionate support for D.C. Statehood and my enthusiasm for D.C. Statehood Day.  I know that the growing hostility to D.C. among MAGA Republicans is a source of a lot of indignation among my pro-statehood colleagues on Capitol Hill so it must be infuriating to the people of Washington. 

        We have MAGA Members who describe January 6 insurrectionists convicted of assaulting police officers as “political prisoners,” thus comparing racist seditionist criminals to people of conscience fighting for civil rights like Andrei Sakharov and Nelson Mandela. These same MAGA Members are constantly maligning the people of Washington and trashing your leaders for your public policy choices. I can only imagine how they would react if the people of Washington engaged in massive nonviolent civil disobedience to vindicate their voting rights, much less the kind of brutal criminal violence they have been defending from the rioters and insurrectionists of January 6th.  MAGA extremists have taken us down a dark road indeed but I am glad the people of Washington are on the high road of democracy and positive, nonviolent social change. 

        D.C. Statehood is a democratic imperative for the 700,000 disenfranchised, taxpaying citizens of Washington.  But it is also today a political and moral imperative for America, which needs the equal voice and participation of your community at every level of government to help us get through the multiple crises of fanaticism and authoritarianism afflicting our society. 

       I look forward to working with you on this great cause and on transforming the degraded condition of American politics. Please don’t let up for one minute.

   Very truly yours,  Jamie Raskin  (MD-8)