Washington, D.C. Is Not a State for Reasons That Date Back to the Founding

Although it's been our nation's capital for most of the country's history, for just as long, the question of Washington, D.C.'s status as something separate from a state has been contentious. The fact that Washington is not a state means that the federal government has a unique set of powers to control the city, which is why President Trump has deployed the National Guard.

Trump's deployment of the National Guard in a city that overwhelmingly voted against him has naturally brought the question of statehood back to the surface. Now, many want to know why Washington, D.C. is not a state. Here's what we know.

Washington, D.C. is not a state for reasons that date all the way back to the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution provides that a district "not exceeding 10 Miles square," would "become the Seat of the Government of the United States." They didn't want one state to have more influence over the nation's government because of its proximity.

The Residence Act, which was adopted in 1790, established the federal district that would become the nation's capital. The Constitution also dictates that the district would be under the sole authority of Congress.

That means that D.C. operates in some ways as a city, some as a state, and some as a nation unto itself. It is entirely distinct in the way that it operates from any other place in the country, and for decades, there have been efforts pushing for D.C. to become a state in and of itself.

Many in the District itself want Washington, D.C. to become a state because they currently lack many of the forms of national representation that other populations in the U.S. get. If you live in the United States, for example, you are not represented at all in either house of Congress, and therefore have less representation than any other American. As Trump's deployment of the National Guard also makes clear, you are uniquely vulnerable to the whims of the federal government.

It's for that combination of reasons that D.C. residents have advocated for statehood.

"For over 200 years, we have been denied a voice in our national government and sovereignty over our local affairs," a site advocating for statehood explains. "Admitting the residential and commercial parts of DC as a state will at last give us representation in Congress and control over our state and local government."

Part of the reason that statehood has not happened is that it could change the balance of power in Congress. Washington, D.C. is overwhelmingly Democratic, and Republicans do not want two more Democratic Senators to change the balance of power in the Senate. Still, calls have been growing in recent years, and it's clear that many in D.C. want statehood. It could happen, but likely not with the Senate we have now.