At-Large Councilmember Robert White wants hundreds of D.C. residents in cars, vans and buses headed to Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to knock doors for congressional candidates who back the District's autonomy.
White, the Democratic nominee for D.C.'s congressional delegate seat, launched Defend DC on Monday, Aug. 24, with the U.S. Capitol as a backdrop and nearly a dozen coalition partners at his side, including the DC Democratic Party, D.C. NAACP, the DC Latino Caucus and statehood advocacy group Free DC, The 51st reported.
"Congress has used its power over D.C. to attack us, so Washingtonians are banding together to use our collective power to change Congress," White said at the launch. "We are going to where the votes are."
Canvassing begins Labor Day weekend. The first target: Virginia's 5th Congressional District, held by Republican John McGuire, who introduced the "Make the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful Act" to codify Trump's executive order coordinating local police with federal agents including ICE. Democrats are backing former congressman Tom Perriello as McGuire's challenger, though Cook Political Report rates the seat safe Republican.
White characterized the current Congress as having launched "nearly 150 attacks on DC," citing proposals ranging from the District's traffic laws to its judicial system. Earlier in August, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a proposal to reinstate the death penalty in D.C., which abolished capital punishment in 1981.
DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson attended the launch and offered support. "This is not a partisan issue and yet it has been a partisan issue because the folks down there, down party lines, vote against the District," Mendelson said, according to WUSA9.
The initiative marks a strategic shift for statehood advocates. Rather than lobbying Congress from the inside, Defend DC aims to change who sits in Congress by mobilizing District residents as campaign volunteers in competitive races roughly 71 days before the November midterms.
White is also building longer-term infrastructure. Federal Election Commission records show he registered a leadership PAC called DC51 on Aug. 12, with plans to raise money for pro-statehood candidates and eventually hire permanent staff for both organizations.
Greg Jackson, Free DC's newly named midterm action director, told the crowd volunteers will be trained to canvass for candidates like Perriello, saying politicians have long assumed there would be no consequences for targeting D.C. because residents lack a vote in Congress.
Former shadow senator Mike Brown, who served nearly two decades before retiring in 2024, warned the effort could be "bluster," noting D.C.'s shadow congressional delegation is unpaid and has no vote. Shadow senator Paul Strauss, who has held the post for roughly three decades, endorsed the project but acknowledged White lacks the seniority and congressional relationships of his predecessor, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.
White's Republican opponent for the delegate seat, Denise Rosado, pushed back in a statement to WUSA9, saying she does not believe the answer is simply "Republicans bad, Democrats good" and arguing that Congress's constitutional oversight authority should be exercised responsibly rather than treated as a partisan battleground.
Patricia Stamper, a native Washingtonian who signed up as a volunteer at the launch, told WUSA9 the District deserves equal representation.
Canvassing in Virginia's 5th District begins Labor Day weekend. No volunteer training date has been announced.
