DC mayor travels to RNC to push for statehood
CLEVELAND - At the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, Donald Trump has been nominated as the Republican nominee for President of the United States. But the mayor of the nation's capital also traveled to the convention trying to spread the message of D.C. statehood.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is trying to reach out to Republicans who are staunch supporters for state's rights to see if they would work with D.C. officials on the issue to help them become the 51st state and possibly forge some unity between the District of Columbia and Republicans in Congress who now control the House of Representatives.
"Our job here today is to talk to the American people who are coming to this convention where there are delegates to this convention," said Bowser. "And what we find out a lot is that they don't know that the residents of their own capital city, unlike any capital city in the world, don't have a vote in Congress. So we have to do some educating."
In addition to statehood, Bowser said Washington D.C. would like to host one of these political conventions. It has always been difficult for D.C. to be considered a host site because not only is the federal government already located here, but Democrats and Republicans every four years go out and run against Washington, so having a political convention in D.C. is a tough sell.
Bowser also said it does not have to be a Democratic National Convention, and if a Republican National Convention was interested in coming to Washington D.C., they would take whatever they could get. She said it would good for business, good for the District of Columbia and good for the United States' image of the nation's capital.