Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R) has sparked a feud with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (D). With voters debating if Puerto Rico should be the 51st state of the United States, Senator Warren is now proposing that D.C. should be a state as well. In response, Rep. Crenshaw took a political swipe, telling Warren to read the Constitution.
Puerto Rico has voted for statehood three times. The first time was in 2012, the second time was in 2017, and the third time was in 2020. Whether or not Puerto Rico should be the 51st state has been a topic of discussion, but now Senator Warren has taken to social media to shed light on D.C. being a state as well.
On Twitter, Senator Warren simply shared that “D.C. should be a state.”
In response, Rep. Crenshaw argued that “Senators should read the Constitution.”
Senators should read the Constitution. https://t.co/B1eoKuoyFg
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) January 30, 2023
The Texas Republican went on to explain that “the District of Columbia’s creation is rooted in Article 1, section 8, clause 17 of the Constitution, which says that the ‘Seat of the Government of the United States’ shall be a district that is at most ten square miles and separate and apart from the other ‘particular states.’”
Commenting on why sEn. Warren would want D.C. to be a state, Crenshaw posited that “the Democrats have zero reason to change this except they think it will give them 2 more Senate seats.”
Calling it “naked opportunism,” he added that “if they really cared about representation, they would advocate for a more realistic solution such as absorbing DC into Maryland or Virginia.”
He explained that for D.C. to become a state, there would have to be a Constitutional amendment and that “the Founders thought the Federal Government should have its own territory, so that no single state could have an advantage over the rest. Washington has mostly benefited from this arrangement, having access to federal money that has built its streets, museums, libraries, etc.”
