D.C. MAYOR Muriel E. Bowser (D) said that her first request when she encounters President-elect Donald Trump will be to push for statehood for the District. She will be able to point to overwhelming support of residents as reflected in Tuesday’s referendum, and she can argue the injustice inherent in the denial of a basic right to U.S. citizens. But she knows full well that with Tuesday’s presidential election results, statehood has gone from highly unlikely to complete non-starter. So we urge her and other D.C. elected officials to work for something that might actually be politically possible: namely, House voting rights.

Mr. Trump, after all, has professed some interest in helping the District. He said on “Meet the Press” last year that he loves the people of the city and wants to do what’s best for them. When he met with our editorial board in March, he allowed that while he was inclined to rule out statehood, having a vote in the House would be “okay.” It also should be noted that Republicans in the past have supported giving the District’s representative a vote in the House.

In fact, it was a Republican, then-Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), who came up with the creative plan — backed at the time by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) — that would have treated the District as a state for purposes of House representation. Under the plan, the House would have expanded from 435 to 437 seats, with a vote for the District balanced against a fourth seat for Utah, then next in line to enlarge its congressional delegation. Among the 22 Republicans who voted for the measure in 2007 were Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), now House speaker, and Mike Pence (Ind.), now vice president-elect. A plan, which rests on interpretation of a clause in the Constitution that gives Congress exclusive authority over the District, could be revived.

The District is mainly Democratic, with a significant African American population. Getting behind an effort to right the historic injustice against that population would send a powerful message about Mr. Trump’s sincerity in wanting to be president for all Americans.