Eleanor Holmes Norton has been the Congresswoman from DC since 1991, and along with working on a variety of congressional committees, she has always considered DC statehood of utmost importance. The Congresswoman continues to fight for democracy and full voting representation in the House and Senate for the residents of the district as part of her struggle for universal human and civil rights. Further, she remains actively engaged in legislative efforts to address systemic inequalities, voting rights, affordable housing, and more.
Benjamin Stern: Since I am from DC myself, DC statehood has always been incredibly important to me, and I know you feel very much the same way. So I was wondering, from your perspective, what makes DC statehood such an important issue both to the 86 percent of DC residents who actively support it and for the country as a whole? Why should the average American citizen care about DC statehood?
Eleanor Holmes Norton: Well, the average American citizen might not care as much as we do, but it is very important to the 700,000 residents who live in the District of Columbia. Without statehood, we do not have a voting representative in the House. I vote on some matters in the so-called “Committee of the Whole,” but even the smallest state has at least one voting representative. Furthermore, without statehood, we do not have two senators. So when a matter passes the House of Representatives, I have to find colleagues and allies in the Senate to get it passed. We are crippled without having full statehood for the District of Columbia.
BS: Absolutely. So DC statehood, as you just mentioned, is very much a political issue, but in what ways is it also an issue of justice and racial equity?
EHN: Well, over the years, we have seen the demography of the District change. At this point, I think we probably have a majority of white people here. That said, historically the district has been a majority Black and brown state, and many still consider it to be so, so the lack of representation for DC’s residents is a racial issue as well.
BS: I know statehood is directly linked to issues of funding and allocation of resources for the district as well as autonomy and home rule in DC. I also know you personally have worked consistently throughout your time in the House on those kinds of issues. So I was wondering, how does DC’s status as a federal district impact its capacity to govern on internal issues like education, affordable housing, and the commonly accepted cause for the extreme demographic shifts in DC that you just mentioned, gentrification?
EHN: Well, in order to get those issues, like housing and education, dealt with even though they affect only the District of Columbia we need Congress to vote because they still have jurisdiction over the District of Columbia. So when you want to get changes in matters affecting the District of Columbia, like in housing or in education, and we do get these changes, you have to come to the Congress because we don’t have statehood yet.
BS: I know measures such as incorporating DC’s voting block into Maryland or Virginia or even allowing you the right to vote in the House have been discussed as potential alternatives to statehood that might be slightly more politically feasible. I was wondering, what is your response to those proposals?
EHN: Well, the District is an independent jurisdiction. We don’t want to be part of another state, and Virginia and Maryland don’t want the District to be part of their states either. If DC were effectively part of Maryland or Virginia, it still would not solve the problem of getting representation specifically for the interests of the residents of the District.
BS: Absolutely. So going hand in hand with the issue of DC statehood, I know voter enfranchisement, be it for residents of DC as we’ve been talking about, or more generally, is an incredibly important issue to you. For example, you recently sponsored the bill, H.R. 6924, or the Federal Bureau of Prisons Voting Assistance Act, to combat the disenfranchisement of prisoners. What makes voter enfranchisement such a crucial issue to you?
EHN: Well, that’s my bill that would require the Bureau of Prisons to provide information to inmates on voting in DC. I’m a native Washingtonian, so nobody in my family has ever had Congressional representation. You don’t feel like you are a full American if you don’t have the power to elect two senators and voting representation in the House.
BS: That experience of being alienated from the experience of being a “full American” as you mentioned is very interesting, and all too common. Voter disenfranchisement and alienation are also issues that people really care about all around the country, including on college campuses including but not limited to Brown. For our reader base and beyond, how would you describe the importance of activism in the movement for DC statehood and voter enfranchisement? And what can the average person or college student, whether from DC or not, do to make a difference?
EHN: Well, the activism has been very great. What those not from DC can do is to inform their own states’ Senators and Representatives to support DC statehood and vote for the bill when it comes in the Senate and the House.
BS: What do you think is the most significant hurdle to achieving DC statehood as American politics stand today?
EHN: The most significant hurdle is the Senate. We may need to have two-thirds of the Senate to break a filibuster.
BS: Would you support the abolition of the filibuster?
EHN: I sure would. A lot more could get done in Congress if the filibuster were abolished, but it’s hard.
BS: You’ve been very focused throughout your career on fighting for representation, and you’ve had a front-row seat, watching everything from the consistent voter suppression through time across the entire country, all the way to more publicized and extreme episodes like the events of January 6th, 2021. Do you think that the events of the last several years in particular elicit concern for the present and future of American democracy?
EHN: Oh well, I would think that January 6th would make everybody understand the importance of voting. I don’t know for sure whether it has actually had that effect, but I would certainly hope that it would.
BS: Absolutely. Throughout the past few years, we’ve seen episode after episode of extreme partisanship, whether specifically in Congress or in America as a whole. Pundits have tended to talk about the modern American political landscape as something fundamentally new in the scheme of the nation’s history. Do you agree that this growing split between political parties is new or unlike anything we’ve seen before?
EHN: Certainly. I’ve been in the Congress for 32 years, and it’s unlike any kind of division I’ve ever seen before.
BS: Do you think some elements do feel familiar? Are there some similarities to partisanship we’ve seen in the past?
EHN: This is pretty new, to see this kind of division. And it’s in part because the House and the Senate are both so narrowly held. Each party has a margin of only a very few votes on each side. This is as partisan as I’ve ever seen in the Congress. I’ve been here for a long time, as I said, over 30 years. And it’s hard because the House and the Senate are each so narrowly held, so it’s very hard to get anything done when each side can essentially keep the other side from moving forward.
BS: With that in mind, going back to statehood, how realistic do you think the fight for DC statehood is right now, and what needs to change in order to actually achieve that goal?
EHN: Well, I’m not sure that is any more realistic now than it would be at any other time, simply because of the filibuster. Whether the Congress was divided or not, you’d have to overcome a filibuster. So again, I’m not sure that this time is any worse than any other time, given what we’d have to have in the Senate.
BS: Do you think if the filibuster were abolished, DC statehood would be a more immediately realistic goal, or would there need to be other changes in addition?
EHN: No, I think filibuster is what stands in the way.
BS: I know that there have been quite a few threats to voting rights recently, and those kinds of threats have changed and developed in new ways since even the 2020 presidential election, thinking of stricter voter ID laws and harsher rules for mail-in voting, for example. How do you interpret that shift, and given that legislation like the Freedom to Vote Act does not seem to have adequate bipartisan congressional support to pass, what do you think the roadmap should be to protect voting rights as we approach the 2024 election?
EHN: You do see some states making it harder to vote. It couldn’t get much harder in DC where we don’t have statehood, but you do see that in some states, and we’re beginning to see it as voting [in the 2024 election] begins now throughout the United States.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.