Friend,

I ran for office to ensure our government reflects the will of the people.

But as you know, in the lead-up to this year’s midterm elections, we’re facing a grave threat to democracy. After Trump and his supporters unsuccessfully tried to steal 2020’s election, right-wing state legislatures have been passing laws so they can subvert and overturn people’s votes.

We NEED to pass federal legislation that safeguards our democracy—and one way to do so is by finally making Washington, D.C. a state with congressional representation.

Washington, D.C. has more residents than the states of Vermont and Wyoming, and it’s close in population to six other states. However, unlike the people in all those states, D.C. residents lack voting representation in the U.S. House and Senate. They don’t have senators or a voting representative, so they don’t have a voice in the government decisions that affect their lives.

This is an affront to our democracy, and it’s taxation without representation: D.C. residents pay more per capita in federal taxes than any other state.

It’s no coincidence that D.C. is nearly 50% Black and majority people of color—people who’ve been consistently disenfranchised throughout our country’s history.  

Sign and send the petition: D.C. residents deserve the full rights of U.S. citizenship and to fully participate in our democracy. It’s time to fight racist voter suppression by ensuring D.C. statehood.

Did you know that D.C. residents don’t even have control over their own local laws?

Congress has repeatedly vetoed popular D.C. laws, causing great harm to the public health and safety of frontline communities. For example, Congress has challenged the District’s plan for a medical marijuana program, gun control, needle exchange programs in the midst of an HIV epidemic, and spending to offset the costs of abortions for low-income residents.

We could fix this voter disenfranchisement by making D.C. a state. This would not only correct a massive injustice, but also start to level the playing field for representation in the U.S. Senate.

Because each state gets two senators no matter its population size, the Senate heavily over-represents less populated states. Today, although the number of Democratic senators is equal to the number of Republican senators, Democratic senators represent many millions more people.

That’s a fundamentally undemocratic system, which results in public policy that is out of line with national popular sentiment.

When Republicans push back against making D.C. a state, they’re not only afraid that primarily-Democratic and plurality-Black D.C. residents will get representation, they’re also afraid that our national systems might more accurately reflect the will of the people—particularly Black people and other people of color.

For a long time, white conservatives and the modern Republican Party have held onto control by suppressing the political power of people of color. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue, but unfortunately, the right-wing wants to maintain systems that have been designed to produce inequality. But when we come together, we have the power to make change happen.

If you agree that we should take this opportunity to correct racist injustices and safeguard our democracy, please sign now to call for D.C. statehood.

Thank you. I’m going to keep fighting alongside you until we all get the representation we deserve.

- Rashida