Montgomery County Announces Support For DC Statehood

ROCKVILLE, MD — Montgomery County Councilmember Evan Glass (D-At Large) introduced a resolution in support of D.C. statehood at a council meeting Tuesday morning — marking the first time the jurisdiction has formally argued for a 51st state.

"Today I am proud to introduce a resolution expressing the Montgomery County Council's support for D.C. statehood, which if achieved —or rather, let me say, when achieved — would make the District of Columbia the 51st state of the union to be known as Washington, Douglass Commonwealth," Glass said.

The Democrat's resolution was introduced on the same day the House Oversight Committee passed a bill that would make D.C. a state.

Democratic Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting representative in Congress, has been fighting for D.C. statehood since being elected in 1991.

Norton's D.C. Admission Act, aptly called H.R. 51, has 223 co-sponsors — all of them Democrats. It's unlikely that the bill will pass the Republican-controlled Senate, given that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that D.C. statehood would be a win for Democrats.

If the bill passes, the new state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth would have a governor, two senators, and a House member.

Glass said Montgomery County stands with the District in its fight for representation.

"Montgomery County residents are proud to stand with our neighbors in the fight for fairness, representation and democracy," Glass said. "Taxation without representation is the tyranny that our founders fought against and it remains unacceptable today."

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser thanked Glass for his support, saying: "We greatly appreciate Councilmember Glass and our neighbors in Maryland for supporting statehood, which we know is the only way to fix the injustice of denying 705,000 taxpaying Washingtonians their full democratic rights."

In a separate statement, Norton said the "resolution from our neighboring county, as H.R. 51 will soon be sent to the House floor, is fraught with unique historic meaning."