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Submitted on May 24, 02:02 ET
US84 - Add 2 US Senators for Washington DC
Description
Why is it that Wyoming, a state with a population of 570,000, is allowed to be represented by 2 US Senators but Washington DC, a district with 620,000 people, not allowed to be represented.  

It is also worth considering why we created the rule to have 2 US Senators per state in the first place.  The reason was to convince all of the colonies to work together to fight the British in 1776.  Does it still makes sense for states like New York and California to have the same voting power as North and South Dakota.  Currently, the people are not being fairly represented.
Arguments
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Why is it that Wyoming, a state with a population of 570,000, is allowed to be represented by 2 US Senators but Washington DC, a district with 620,000 people, not allowed to be represented.  

It is also worth considering why we created the rule to have 2 US Senators per state in the first place.  The reason was to convince all of the colonies to work together to fight the British in 1776.  Does it still makes sense for states like New York and California to have the same voting power as North and South Dakota.  Currently, the people are not being fairly represented.
Submitted by rutgers27 on May 24, 02:02 ET
3 Agree 0 Disagree 1 Reply
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started by captainlaser on May 28

Statehood

You could simplify this by making DC a State, which they should be.
 +1
started by saritap on May 25
last reply by rutgers27 on May 25

Yes to DC, no to other Senate change (1 reply)

Very good point.  Granting each state 1-5 Senators based on their population would definitely make our democracy more fair!  We need to make changes to our country's laws every so often to ensure that our democracy is fair to all.  California, Texas, and New York should have 4-5 Senators while Wyoming, North Dakota, and Rhode Island should only have 1-2 Senators.

An additional reason that 2 Senators should be added to represent Washington DC has to do with the demographics.  Washington DC is 55% African-American with over 300,000 African-Americans living in DC that are not being represented in our United States Senate.  Our country currently has ZERO African-American Senators.  By not allowing DC to have 2 US Senators, we are hurting the African-American community as a whole.
 +2
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Make Washington DC a state. Its population is more than Wyoming and they get no representation in U.S. Congress. More detail
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Washington DC's 618k people should get 1 House Rep (avg is 716k people per House Rep) and 1 Senator (avg is 3.1mm/Sen) More detail
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