The Northern Mariana Islands is an unincorporated territory of the United States, and in a political union with it in the form of a commonwealth.
The Northern Mariana Islands and the United States of America reached a Covenant Agreement which became fully effective on November 4, 1986.
Prior to January 2009, the Commonwealth maintained an elected "Resident Representative" in Washington, DC.
L. 110–229 (text) (PDF), the Commonwealth now elects a nonvoting delegate to the U.S. Congress, similar to other U.S. insular areas.
Both scholarly works and the authors of the controversial website Saipansucks.com charge that this is nepotism carried out within the trappings of democracy.