Houston Republic

With Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives getting movement on legislation that would grant the District of Columbia statehood, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined the chorus of voices raising objections.

Paxton recently shared his official opinion on the matter in a statement that discussed both constitutional and practical problems D.C. statehood would pose.

“If D.C. unlawfully becomes a state, it will create a super-state that has privilege and primacy over all others,” Paxton stated on the Texas Attorney General’s official Twitter account. “I will use every legal tool available to stop hyper-partisans and elites from undermining our 50 states and granting themselves greater authority.”

In his statement, Paxton said that D.C. would be a state with unrivaled power, which is why the U.S. Constitution set aside a special district for the seat of the federal government that would neither be part of a state or a state unto itself.

“Our Founding Fathers explicitly set aside a federal district to serve as the seat of government,” Paxton said. “It was never intended to operate as a state, and for good reason.”

Paxton said that he believes the actual intent behind the move to grant statehood to D.C. is a desire to unbalance power, and that the result would ultimately be harmful to Texas. 

With approximately 700,000 residents, D.C. would rank third among U.S. states in population, just ahead of Vermont and Wyoming, according to coverage by CBS. The most significant effect statehood would have on representation in Congress, though, is the two seats that would be added to the U.S. Senate.

The addition of Senate seats is widely popular among Democrats, and just as unpopular among Republicans, with D.C. a solidly Democratic stronghold, CBS reported. The House Oversight Committee advanced H.R. 51 in a 25-19, party-line vote.