By John Ray (@johnlray)

On Friday, the newly Democratic-led House passed HR1 which includes, among many commonsense voting reforms and electoral protections, endorsement of DC statehood. Perhaps surprisingly, this is the first-ever piece of legislation to pass the House officially endorsing voting rights for the District, which has a higher population than Wyoming, Vermont, and every other non-voting US territory besides Puerto Rico.

From January 25 to 29, 2019, Data for Progress fielded a survey of 1,282 US voters with YouGov Blue. On that survey, we asked voters about statehood for both Washington, DC and Puerto Rico. Specifically, we asked respondents:

Would you support or oppose granting statehood, including full representation in Congress, to Washington, DC, currently a Federal District?

and

Would you support or oppose granting statehood, including full representation in Congress, to Puerto Rico, currently a US Commonwealth?

to which respondents could respond if they strongly supported, somewhat supported, neither supported nor opposed, somewhat opposed, strongly opposed, or were unsure.

While Republicans were quick to attack HR1 as a “power grab,” our results were clear: DC statehood and Puerto Rico statehood are both popular.

Voters support DC statehood 34 percent-28 percent, with a further 19 percent being in the middle and 18 percent being unsure. The numbers are even clearer for Puerto Rico: 53 percent of voters support Puerto Rico statehood, and just 21 percent oppose, with 14 percent in the middle and 12 percent being unsure.