Puerto Rico territorial status

[traininthedistance]

If they want to become a state, then they should be allowed.  All of our territories should be allowed in if they want in.  And we shouldn't be closed to admitting new territories under the right circumstances.

But that's how the statehood process goes... first a territory, then a full fledged state.

Aside from Puerto Rico, all of our territories are way, way too small to realistically be states.  The combined population of Guam, American Samoa, the Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands is still smaller than Wyoming. 

I think they would need to combine forces, either with each other or with Hawaii/Puerto Rico, to have a reasonable claim to statehood.

[traininthedistance]

Make that nineteen states, I had neglected Maine.  Tennessee spent a few years as the Southwest Territory. The other state that never went through the territorial stage was California. It was unorganized territory under military administration after the Mexican Cession and was admitted as State without ever being an organized territory.

Without looking at Benj's answers, I guessed Vermont, Maine, WV, and Texas, but did not think of Kentucky.

California crossed my mind, but I dismissed it because I figured that even if there wasn't a "California Territory" (which I wasn't sure of) it had to have been part of the US before it was a state in some sort of territorial capacity.  Though, sure, unorganized territory straight to statehood is unique.