[1] The District of Columbia was created following the passage of the Residence Act on July 9, 1790, which approved the creation of a national capital, the City of Washington on the Potomac River.

[2] On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River.

The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who signed the bill into law on July 16.

[4] After the passage of this Act, citizens living in the District were no longer considered residents of Maryland or Virginia, which therefore ended their representation in Congress.

Confirming the fears of pro-slavery Alexandrians, the Compromise of 1850 outlawed the slave trade in the District, although not slavery itself.

[8] Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution gives Congress power to grant statehood.

He added that "folks in D.C. pay taxes like everybody else, they contribute to the overall well-being of the country like everybody else, they should be treated like everybody else," Obama said in response to a question.

The proposed state would also be fiscally responsible for its judicial system, which the federal government currently funds.

The attorney general would remain an independently elected office, while the new state would no longer have to submit laws or budgets to Congress for approval, as the District of Columbia is required to now.

In this election, when asked the referendum question, "Shall the voters of the District of Columbia advise the Council to approve or reject this proposal," this was the tally of the final vote: While a majority of residents voted in favor of statehood, numerous challenges still exist that might hamper creation of the state, including lack of Congressional support; DC currently does not have voting-level congressional representation, and the national Republican Party is against the idea of statehood,[24] due in part to political concerns that DC statehood would be detrimental to the Republicans since the new state would likely send an entirely Democratic delegation to Congress.

Statehood for Washington, D.C., would thus imply the passage of a Constitutional amendment and the creation of a new district to serve as the seat of the federal government.

In 2017, separate bills were introduced by the District's non-voting Delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Tom Carper, a senator from Delaware, for statehood, which again failed to reach a vote.

In 2019, following the 2018 election that saw the Democratic Party regain control of the House of Representatives, the Democratic leadership put its support behind the admission of the District as a state,[27] with Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, one of the 155 co-sponsors of the Bill introduced by Eleanor Holmes Norton in January 2019.

[31] Voting for the bill in the House of Representatives was along party lines, with Democrats in favor of admitting the District of Columbia as a state and Republicans opposed.

[37] The same day, the storming and occupation of the United States Capitol mainly by supporters of Donald Trump led to calls from others for the District's status to be changed; because of its status, the activation of the District of Columbia National Guard to assist local law enforcement required the consent of the Secretary of the Army, while the Governors of Virginia and Maryland were able to activate units of their states' National Guard directly.