Preparing DC for Statehood: The Sovereign Commonwealth Strategy
The political disenfranchisement of the more than 700,000 residents of the District of Columbia is an ongoing constitutional crisis and a severe violation of international human rights law. While our population exceeds that of Wyoming and Vermont, our citizens are systematically denied voting representation in the national legislature while federal politicians micromanage our local affairs and control our local tax revenues. Other candidates treat our autonomy with ideological abstraction, performative progressive posturing, or transactional compromises that surrender our self-governance for minor concessions. I reject those weak compromises and the historically racist trap of retrocession. My plan frames statehood not as a distant legislative favor, but as an immediate human rights mandate and a constitutional obligation that the local executive will actively enforce.
The Plan
- Bypass federal stagnation by re-activating the Tennessee Plan on day one, convening a constitutional convention to update our draft state constitution, and fully funding our shadow delegation to operate as active state ambassadors.
- Assert immediate municipal sovereignty by issuing an executive order ending all local police cooperation with ICE and federal immigration authorities.
- Shield local tax revenues from hostile congressional appropriations riders by routing funds through independent municipal trusts and non-profit partnerships to protect local initiatives like reproductive healthcare and clean-needle exchanges.
- Launch an aggressive constitutional lawsuit in federal courts asserting that the denial of voting representation directly violates the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the equal protection guarantees of the Fifth Amendment.