A new coalition of D.C. groups and activists has a message for Republican members of Congress: If you mess with us here, we’ll mess with you on your home turf.
The coalition — known as Defend D.C. — says it will spearhead and supercharge efforts to send city residents into surrounding states ahead of the November midterm elections, with the purpose of supporting Democratic challengers and help flip at least the House of Representatives, if not also the Senate.
Proponents say the push to influence the outcome of the elections stems from the reality that D.C. — a federal district with no voting representation on Capitol Hill — is often at the mercy of Congress, and that the Republican majority that has controlled it over the past 20 months has more aggressively interfered with the city’s local affairs.
“Congress has used its power over D.C. to attack us. So Washingtonians are banding together to use our collective power to change Congress,” said Robert White, an at-large D.C. Council member who is also the Democratic nominee for the District’s nonvoting delegate to Congress, at a news conference Monday. “We are going to where the votes are. When politicians somewhere else believe they can come into our city and take away our rights without consequences, then we will go into their communities.”
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White and other organizers say the initial focus will be on competitive congressional districts within driving distance of D.C., largely in Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. While they did not identify every candidate they will target, on Monday they singled one out: Rep. John McGuire (R-Virginia).
“For generations politicians have assumed that there will be no consequences for attacking D.C., that because we don’t have a vote we can’t threaten their power. Well, that changes today. Today we are here to say, ‘John, when you choose to attack D.C. instead of serving your residents, then you’re going to have to deal with all of us,’” said Greg Jackson from Free D.C., a local protest group that grew in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision in August 2025 to deploy the National Guard in the city.
McGuire — whose district encompasses a swath of central Virginia including Charlottesville and Lynchburg — was the author of a bill that passed the House in March that would permanently codify Trump’s efforts to assert control over D.C. He is being challenged by Tom Perriello, who represented the district from 2009 to 2011. The Cook Political Report has described the seat as “fairly safe” for McGuire to hold.
D.C. residents traveling near and far to canvas for their preferred congressional and presidential candidates isn’t new, and played a significant role in the city’s success in pressuring Congress to grant it an elected mayor and council more than 50 years ago. In the early 1970s, D.C. residents with roots in South Carolina travelled there to help organize against Rep. John McMillan, a longtime foe of the city’s push to gain more autonomy from Congress. In 1972, he lost, in large part because of Black voters.
Defend D.C. and other groups have adopted a subtle yet significant shift in their messaging that they believe could be more successful for them: Selling D.C. statehood as a raw political tool to get two more Democratic senators and push back against the Republican agenda.
“We’re no longer talking about D.C. statehood because it’s the right thing to do. It remains the right thing to do,” White said. “But D.C. statehood is a national response to redistricting and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, which is something everyone in this nation understands.”
In the past, advocates for statehood — which passed the House of Representatives twice at the start of the decade, but stalled in the Senate — carefully spoke of the cause as one of democratic principles and fairness. Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and even Trump, derided it as a means by Democrats to get two more senators. Now, White and others agree that the push for statehood boils down to political power.
“I have studied history to understand how and why some states became states,” he told NOTUS. “The Dakotas didn’t become two states just because. They became two states because they said, ‘Why take two senators when we can have four?’ Well, we deserve two senators. We’re not trying to get extra, just what we deserve.”
The shift in messaging is backed by Amy Vruno, the executive director of D.C. Vote, a long-standing organization that has advocated for and educated people on D.C. statehood and autonomy.
“Many of the things we’re engaging people around is, ‘What is an issue you care about and how could D.C., if it has representation and two votes in the Senate, be in alliance with you?’” she said. “Some people care about health care, some about climate, some about reproductive rights. There are many issues that might motivate someone in their home turf that D.C. residents would be in alliance with.”
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