51st state
"51st state" is a phrase used in the United States to refer to the idea of adding an additional state to the current 50-state country. Proposals for a 51st state may include granting statehood to one of the U.S. territories or Washington, D.C., splitting an existing state, or annexing part or all of a sovereign country. The U.S. has not admitted any new states to the union since 1959, when both Alaska and Hawaii were admitted. Before that, no states had been admitted since Arizona in February 1912. Before Alaska and Hawaii became U.S. states, the equivalent expression was "the 49th state". For example, the National Movement for the Establishment of a 49th State was a 1930s movement that sought to create a primarily Black state in the Southern United States.
In the 2010s, and the 2020s, the term has been used most often in reference to active statehood movements in Washington, D.C., and in Puerto Rico, both voted for statehood in recent referendums: D.C. in 2016 and Puerto Rico in 2020. Their admission to the Union as states would require congressional approval. The two regions have different statuses within the U.S., with Puerto Rico as one of the five permanently inhabited U.S. territories, while D.C. has unique status as a federal administrative district. The path to statehood for Puerto Rico in particular would have parallels to the admission process of most U.S. states outside of the original Thirteen British Colonies, which started as territories before becoming states.
Since the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the phrase has also been frequently invoked in reference to Canada, as Donald Trump has used the phrase repeatedly while calling for the U.S. annexation of Canada. The U.S. annexed sovereign nations as states in the past, including Texas, Hawaii, and Vermont, though this has not happened in recent history. Some U.S. states have experienced movements to split into two states, often due to strong political disagreements between different regions of a state. There is precedent for such state-splitting moves in U.S. history, such as the creation of Kentucky and West Virginia from Virginia, though, again, there have been no such moves in more than a century. The phrase can also be used as a slang term in reference to regions or sovereign nations around the world that are not actually considered prospects for U.S. annexation, but are considered to be aligned with U.S. culture or political or military interests. This slang may be used in either a positive sense, or in a pejorative sense similar to the term Americanization.
Legal requirements
of the United States Constitution authorizes Congress to admit new states into the United States. Historically, most new states brought into being by Congress have been established from an organized incorporated territory, created and governed by Congress. In some cases, an entire territory became a state; in others, some part of a territory became a state. As defined in a 1953 U.S. Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, the traditionally accepted requirements for statehood are:- The inhabitants of the proposed new state are imbued with and are sympathetic toward the principles of democracy as exemplified in the American Constitution.
- A majority of the electorate wish for statehood.
- The proposed new state has sufficient population and resources to support state government and carry its share of the cost of Federal Government.
A simple majority in each House of Congress is required to pass statehood legislation; however, in the United States Senate, the filibuster requires 60 votes to invoke cloture. Some statehood advocacy organizations have called for amending or abolishing the filibuster as a path to achieve statehood. As with other legislation, the President can sign or veto statehood bills that pass, and Congress has the power to override a veto with a two-thirds majority; Nebraska is the only existing state admitted through a veto override. Although Congress, with approval of the President, can add a state to the Union, they cannot make another State by splitting or merging two existing states, without the consent of the State legislatures involved.
While States can join the United States, once they do so it is illegal to leave, a point of contention during the Civil War.
U.S. flag
If a new U.S. state were to be admitted, it would require a new design of the flag to accommodate an additional star for the 51st state. However, according to the U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry, an existing United States flag never becomes obsolete. In the event that a new state is added to the Union and a 51-star flag is approved, any previously approved American flag may continue to be used and displayed until no longer serviceable. On June 13, 2022, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered flags with 51 stars to be hung along Pennsylvania Avenue in support of D.C. being added as a 51st state.U.S. Senate classes
Should a 51st state be admitted, it would receive U.S. Senate seats in classes 1 and 2, at which point all three classes would have 34 senators.From existing territories of the United States
District of Columbia
The District of Columbia is often mentioned as a candidate for statehood. In Federalist No. 43 of The Federalist Papers, James Madison considered the implications of the definition of the "seat of government" found in the United States Constitution. Although he noted potential conflicts of interest, and the need for a "municipal legislature for local purposes", Madison did not address the district's role in national voting. Legal scholars disagree on whether a simple act of Congress can admit the District as a state, due to its status as the seat of government of the United States, which Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution requires to be under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress; depending on the interpretation of this text, admission of the full District as a state may require a Constitutional amendment, which is much more difficult to enact.The District of Columbia residents who support the statehood movement sometimes use the slogan "Taxation without representation" to denote their lack of Congressional representation. The phrase is a shortened version of the Revolutionary War protest motto "no taxation without representation" omitting the initial "No", and is printed on newly issued District of Columbia license plates. President Bill Clinton's presidential limousine had the "Taxation without representation" license plate late in his term, while President George W. Bush had the vehicle's plates changed shortly after beginning his term in office. President Barack Obama had the license plates changed back to the protest style shortly before his second-term inauguration. President Donald Trump eventually removed the license plate and signaled opposition to D.C. statehood.
This position was carried by the D.C. Statehood Party, a political party; it has since merged with the local Green Party affiliate to form the D.C. Statehood Green Party. The nearest this movement ever came to success was in 1978, when Congress passed the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment. Two years later in 1980, local citizens passed an initiative written and filed by J. Edward Guinan calling for a constitutional convention for a new state. In 1982, voters ratified the constitution of the state, which was to be called New Columbia. The drive for statehood stalled in 1985, however, when the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment failed because not enough states ratified the amendment within the allowed seven-year span.
Another proposed option would be to have Maryland, from which the D.C. land was ceded, retake the District of Columbia, as Virginia has already done for its part, while leaving the National Mall, the United States Capitol, the United States Supreme Court, and the White House in a truncated District of Columbia. This would give residents of the District of Columbia the benefit of statehood while precluding the creation of a 51st state, but would require the consent of the Government of Maryland.
2016 statehood referendum
On April 15, 2016, District Mayor Muriel Bowser called for a citywide vote on whether the nation's capital should become the 51st state. This was followed by the release of a proposed State Constitution. This Constitution would make the Mayor of the District of Columbia the Governor of the proposed state, while the members of the District Council would make up the proposed House of Delegates.On November 8, 2016, the voters of the District of Columbia voted overwhelmingly in favor of statehood, with 86% of voters voting to advise approving the proposal. While the name "New Columbia" has long been associated with the movement, the City Council and community members chose the proposed state name to be the State of Columbia, or the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth. The Maryland abolitionist Frederick Douglass was a D.C. resident and was chosen to be the proposed state's namesake alongside George Washington of Virginia.