On May 23, 2024, the House passed H.R. 192, repealing an act approved by the DC Council TWO YEARS ago that would allow non-citizen residents to vote in this year's local elections for the first time. The House previously voted to overturn non-citizen voting in 2023, but the assault from Congress was overturned in the Senate. Just as in 2023, this House bill is unlikely to move anywhere, stalled in the Senate, but this still imposes a chilling effect over the city.

By DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton’s count, this bill is one of 22 pieces of legislation recently introduced by Republicans to change DC election laws. Last week's House vote to permanently block DC from changing its criminal sentencing laws is another odious example of Congress attacking DC’s already limited autonomy. To credit, Council Chair Phil Mendelson and Attorney General Brian Schwalb sent a letter to Congress stating their clear support for District autonomy. The missing signature of our supposed Mayor, Muriel Bowser, should not go unnoticed.

National interference shadows any and all debate on the 2024 DC elections like our collective toxic ex-boyfriend—seriously unwanted and desperate to convince us that he's right. We cannot let him win.

Over the past year and a half, especially since the Senate voted to block the DC Criminal Code Bill, on March 8, 2023, intentional meddling in DC affairs has flattened the nuanced conversations we can (and do) have. Don't be fooled, surface-level concerns about “crime” did not actually drive last year's vote and neither has legitimate concerns about our electoral process driven this year’s. Both times, Republicans and many Democrats saw fit to squash DC’s internal capacity to organize itself in creating smarter policies, legislation, and systems. 

We see this in Republican-backed efforts to recall our Councilmembers. We hear this in ridiculous stories by people whose only experience living in DC is the walk between the Capitol and their overpriced apartment building. 

WHY are we letting the flighty know-it-alls define and control OUR own narrative? We — the bus drivers, the educators, the librarians, the nonprofit workers, the tenants, the engineers, the retail workers, the artists, the entrepreneurs — are the ones who give this city its spirit. At the end of every day, we come home to each other. It is up to us to decide how we want to live together. 

We are the ones who know that workers deserve to earn a living wage, that residents have a right to stable and affordable housing, that families need a well-resourced education system and access to care, that there is no DC without immigrants, that everyone should have healthy food to sustain themselves. Every person who has made DC its home contributes to life in this city and MUST have a say in how our infrastructure and society is designed and maintained.

So slap these petty bullsh*tters across the face and let's hold the damn line. DC statehood now, hands off DC PERIOD.