By Jess Sharp, live news reporter in Washington DC
The economy, war in the Middle East, and immigration are just some of the issues voters have mentioned to me today, but for Kelsye Adams the most important issue in this election is getting statehood for DC.
The organising director of DC Vote is just one of the many people that have headed to Metrobar to share their message.
Washington DC, despite being home to the federal government buildings, is not and has never been a state.
Instead, Washington is a city inside the District of Columbia territory.
This means, residents do not have any elected officials in the Senate, and the area’s House representative does not have full voting powers.
Kelsye explained to me that the district has no representation in government, despite having a bigger population than two states.
“We are the only country where the people who live in its nation’s capital doesn’t have a voice in the federal government,” she said.
“You would think that America was the hegemon, and based on all these principles of freedom and democracy, I guess we left out fairness, because we forgot 700,000 Americans.
“This is a target on people of colour. We did nothing but be born, and they say we can’t have a voice in congress and ‘no senator for you’.”
The 33-year-old said that DC was made to house the federal government after an insurrection during the creation of the constitution in Philadelphia in 1776.
But she added that the January 6 riots showed it was no longer a “safe space” for elected officials.
“It was created to protect the federal government from being insurrected, but it was insurrected and a lack of statehood is why it couldn’t defend itself,” she said, explaining that the mayor was unable to call the national guard.
“If we had been a state, we would have avoided an insurrection,” she added.
So what has all of this got to do with the presidential election?
In order to become a state, a bill has to be passed by congress or the president.
“When you think about power, gaining anything in a political space, there has to be a shift of power, and nobody wants to be the person who lost power,” Kelsye said.
“We know for a fact that Harris will be fighting for DC statehood.”
I asked what she thought a Trump presidential would mean for her cause, and she said it “would be chaotic for DC for sure”.
She stressed the importance of voting, saying she wants “folks in the 50 states” to realise Washingtonians do not have a representative who can fight for them.
“If you don’t want to fight, that is perfectly fine, but what I ask people to do is to vote for him. The fact that I don’t have representation in congress is just a furious feeling,” she added.
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