John Kasich is against Washington, D.C., getting congressional voting rights because it would give the Democratic Party an advantage.
When asked by Jo-Ann Armao, who is on the Washington Post’s editorial board, if he still stood by his congressional vote against statehood for D.C., the Republican presidential hopeful replied, “Yes.”
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“Is that still your position, and do you have—” Armao asked.
“Yes, I would say it probably is,” the Ohio governor said.
Armao then asked about voting rights in Congress, “voting representatives” for D.C. residents.
“Probably not. I don’t know. I’d have to, I mean, to me, that’s just, I just don’t see that we really need that, OK? I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Kasich replied, according to a transcript of the interview with the Post’s editorial board.
Armao then explained to Kasich that the people in D.C. “pay taxes, go to war and they have no vote in Congress.”
“[W]hat it really gets down to if you want to be honest is because they know that’s just more votes in the Democratic Party,” Kasich said.
Later in the interview, Kasich clarified his comments, saying, “[M]aybe I’ll have to flip-flop my position, OK? I don’t know. Let me look at it. Let me think about it.”
Last week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called for a citywide vote on giving the District statehood. In Congress, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, represents D.C., but does not have voting rights.
