DC Vote Statement On Partisan Efforts To Repeal DC Home Rule

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 14th, 2022

PRESS CONTACT:
Patrice Snow
[email protected]

Washington, DC – In response to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Representative James Comer (R-KY), and their Republican colleagues’ efforts to repeal DC Home Rule if they take over House control in November, DC Vote’s Communications Director Patrice Snow issued the following statement:

“It’s been clear for a while now that democracy is on the ballot in November and the beginning rumblings of Reps. Kevin McCarthy (CA) and James Comer (KY) to repeal the DC Home Rule Act if they win power in November prove it. But the announcement of their anti-democratic plot also demonstrates the movement to enfranchise the 700,000 tax paying American citizens in Washington, DC through Statehood is loud, proud, and working successfully toward its goal. We’ve always believed DC Statehood is more a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ and McCarthy and Comer’s latest shot at rolling back rather than expanding the full participation in OUR democracy show nothing more than they are running scared,” Snow said.

Snow continued, “The history of DC shows that each and every time DC Home Rule has been threatened or removed, racism was at the core. And now, true to form, certain members of Congress are using the backdrop of Black History Month to announce proposals to hold DC local elected officials to a different standard than any other jurisdiction in the country. They are threatening investigations into local activities that should not be under the purview of Congress. Their call to rescind the Home Rule Act moves beyond the typical game of using DC residents to score cheap political points at home and into a racist attack on the fundamental right to representation for the 700,000 residents of DC, a majority of whom are Black and brown. All Americans deserve the freedom to vote, the freedom to govern ourselves and the freedom to determine our own destiny. It’s only because of our lack of Statehood that these Representatives feel empowered to deny those freedoms and engage in the racist subjugation of American citizens.”

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