The District of Columbia is a political division coterminous with Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. According to the Article One of the Constitution, only states may be represented in the United States Congress. The District of Columbia is not a U.S. state and therefore has no voting representation in the United States Senate. However, it does have a non-voting delegate to represent it in the House.
The majority of residents want the district to become a state and gain full voting representation in Congress. To prepare for this goal, the district has elected shadow senators since 1990. The shadow senator emulates the role of representing the district in the Senate and pushes for statehood alongside the non-voting House delegate and shadow representatives. The district has held 11 shadow senator elections.
The Democratic Party has immense political strength in the district; in each of the shadow senator elections, the district has overwhelmingly voted for the Democratic candidate, with no margin less than 58 percentage points.
Shadow senator elections Key for parties
Initial + Year Winner 1 Winner 2 Runner-up Candidate Votes % Candidate Votes % Candidate Votes % 1990 105,633 46.80% 58,451 25.89% 13,983 6.19%
Class I + Year Winner Runner-up Other candidate Candidate Votes % Candidate Votes % Candidate Votes % 1994 117,517 74.04% 24,107 15.19% 15,586 9.82% 2000 143,578 88.97% 16,666 10.33% colspan="2" style="text-align:left; border-left:3px solid darkgray;" 2006 90,336 84.16% 15,352 14.30% colspan="2" style="text-align:left; border-left:3px solid darkgray;" 2012 206,911 79.78% 26,614 10.26% 23,935 9.23% 2018 178,573 82.89% 33,016 15.32% colspan="2" style="text-align:left; border-left:3px solid darkgray;" 2024 265,360 89.94% 26,968 9.14% colspan="2" style="text-align:left; border-left:3px solid darkgray;"
Class II + Year Winner Runner-up Other candidate Candidate Votes % Candidate Votes % Candidate Votes % 1996 107,217 76.01% 19,044 13.50% 13,148 9.32% 2002 91,434 77.32% 13,966 11.81% 11,277 9.54% 2008 183,519 80.82% 18,601 8.19% 16,881 7.43% 2014 116,901 76.41% 15,710 10.27% 10,702 6.99% 2020 251,991 81.17% 31,151 10.03% 24,168 7.78%
Graph The following graph shows the margin of victory of the Democratic Party over the runner-up in the 11 shadow senator elections the District of Columbia has held, excluding the initial 1990 election that had two winners.
See also Elections in the District of Columbia United States House of Representatives elections in the District of Columbia United States presidential elections in the District of Columbia
Notes
References