Adding D.C. to Virginia

[muon2]

Why is this always about what best benefits one party over the other? If the issue is that the citizens of DC lack congressional representation and DC statehood is not an option, the question should be what state would those citizens like to join in order to have congressional representation.

[muon2]

To which they reply there's no reason why statehood should not be an option, and statehood is indeed what they want.

Yes, given that the main reason statehood is not an option is that it benefits one party if it were.

That's why historically many states were admitted as pairs. The relative balance of power in Congress was an important political goal back to the earliest days of the US and was still true in 1959.

[muon2]

Actually, I think we should do the opposite. Arlington and Alexandria should be added to DC.

Obama would have still won Virginia 52-47 in 2008 with that map.  Who can tell us if he would have won it again in 2012?

Yes. Obama had a 149K margin in 2012 in VA. Without Alexandria and Arlington his winning margin would have been just over 70K. You have to take out Fairfax as well to flip the result in VA.