What does it mean to live in the most powerful democracy in the world and still not have a vote in it?
That’s the question at the heart of this week’s conversation with Ankit Jain, one of two elected senators representing Washington, about DC’s fight for statehood.
Ankit came to this issue the way many DC residents do. He moved across the river and suddenly lost his representation. But his path from volunteer sign-distributor to senator is also a story about a movement that has only recently found its footing. As he puts it, DC statehood as a mainstream political project is younger than most people think, really only consolidating around 2014, after a poison pill gun amendment tanked a narrower voting rights bill under Obama.
What makes Ankit a compelling voice is the specificity, in addition to his advocacy. He walks us through what colonial status actually looks like on the ground: a judicial vacancy crisis that he believes is directly driving DC’s crime rate, local prosecutors nominated by the president, prison sentences served halfway across the country, and a building height limit set by Congress.
There’s also a lot in this episode about DC’s internal democratic health (i.e., ranked choice voting, open primaries, proportional representation) and why Ankit thinks DC’s election system should be a model for the rest of the country, even as the statehood fight continues.
Check it out on Spotify and Apple Podcasts now: