The Political Moves Throughout History That Have Denied D.C. Voting Representation

How D.C. was the first gerrymandered district and Hamilton politically spun away your congressional representation.


The U.S. Census Bureau released the results of their every-decade count Thursday. The 2020 figures now give a glimpse of a new America with a shrinking White population and more Hispanic and Asian residents. This updated picture will change the face of America, not only in how $1.5 trillion, with a “T,” in funds are distributed—but also how federal districts get redrawn.

This invites back the spooky G word… gerrymandering. When the Census is released, states redraw their boundaries to better reflect their changing demographics. In a perfect world, they’d be drawn to closely reflect the makeup of communities based on political views, race, and other factors. We do not live in a perfect world, so often the party in control of the state will draw lines to give itself political advantages. This is gerrymandering.

But Washington, D.C. isn’t involved in this process at the federal level (though the city’s growth over the past decade will lead to ward-level redistricting). We’re not a state, we don’t have representation in Congress (thanks in part to Alexander Hamilton, more on that later), and even if we were, we’d only have one representative based on our population.

“Everybody right now is taking a look at their own representation. Am I fairly represented?” Bo Shuff, executive director of DC Vote, which advocates for D.C. equality, says. “Are we actually represented by the people we have in office?”

Read more: https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/528227/the-political-moves-throughout-history-that-have-denied-d-c-voting-representation/