Republican Congresswoman Mace calls Democrats’ D.C. statehood bill ‘ideological terrorism’

During debate on the Washington, D.C., statehood bill on Thursday, South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace called the legislation “ideological terrorism.”

The bill would repeal the 23rd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and redraw the existing boundaries of the nation’s capital to create the “State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth.” The legislation passed in the House following the debate, 216-208, along party lines.

Democrats on the House floor argued that D.C. statehood is a matter of representation for residents of D.C. in Congress regardless of the city’s history of voting for Democrats in presidential elections.

“Some say this is not about race or partisanship, you can be sure it’s about race and partisanship. A city with a minority majority population that apparently might vote in a different way from some.

So what?” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia. “How somebody votes cannot be a test of whether they have the right to vote in the democracy.”

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