WASHINGTON — Actress Wendi McLendon-Covey of The Goldbergs on ABC said that she is “baffled” that the District of Columbia hasn’t become a state.
Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed the “For The People Act,” which contained a declaration of support for D.C. statehood, but the formal statehood bill, H.R. 51, has not passed the House yet.
“Why is it still an issue? I don’t understand why this hasn’t been solved already,” McLendon-Covey said on the red carpet of the Creative Coalition’s #RightToBearArts gala in Washington. “D.C. should be a state. Period. You should have a vote in Congress. There’s no reason to not have it, so I’m really baffled by why there’s not enough movement on that.”
McLendon-Covey and other celebrities were in Washington with the Creative Coalition to advocate for continued federal funding of arts programs.
Actor Anthony Rapp of Star Trek: Discovery said that it “seems like the people in D.C. would like it to become a state and I’m for people to have the representation that they want to have so I think it certainly should be a conversation that should be had, for sure.”
Steve Howey from Shameless said he supports D.C. becoming a state while actress CCH Pounder from NCIS: New Orleans expressed a different view.
“The problem with D.C. becoming a state is that the feeder community lives outside of what would be considered the green area and it would be a little bit on the separatist side for me and as this particular place represents the country, I think it would look a little odd, a little strange,” Pounder said.
Anthony Carrigan from Barry said he wants to learn more about the issue.
“I’m not sure. I need to do more research,” he said.
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