Washington, DC

(Des Moines, IA) – The results are in for the issue resolutions submitted at Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses on February 1, 2016.

The DC statehood resolution has garnered sufficient support that it will be considered for eight county platforms at conventions on March 12, 2016, for Boone, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Cass, Clinton, Keokuk, Page and Polk counties – at least one county in all four congressional districts in the Hawkeye State.

In Polk County, the state’s largest county, there were 38 precincts that passed a resolution in support of DC statehood and sent them on to the next level, the county convention process. The government subcommittee will then review each resolution and formulate a one-sentence plank to be considered by the platform committee, which will submit a final draft platform to each convention until the body meets and votes.

US Senator Paul Strauss, (D-DC/Shadow), and other members of the District of Columbia’s Statehood Congressional Delegation, had been working to make the District’s fight for statehood a topic of conversation in the presidential campaigns. “I appreciate the support of the people of Iowa, as well as the hard work of my colleagues on the Delegation,” Senator Strauss said. “I am particularly pleased that our advocacy effort in Iowa was successful in passing a resolution in more precincts than several other better funded state-wide caucus campaigns,” Strauss added. Strauss also thanked the Iowa elected officials who were so supportive of the efforts as well as the other DC officials who joined him on his trip, which included US Senator Michael D. Brown and US Representative Franklin Garcia.

Tamyra Harrison, Director of Iowans for DC Statehood, said, “I am so excited about how enthusiastically Iowans have embraced our cause in supporting statehood for our fellow Americans in the District of Columbia. We had tremendous success seeing our resolution pass at caucuses in multiple precincts from eight counties across the state of Iowa. We’re encouraged moving forward that our resolution can become part of the county, district and, ultimately, state platforms.” (see www.IowansForDCStatehood.com)

“As first-in-the-nation, Iowans have a unique responsibility to be on the front line of the democratic process for choosing presidential candidates, as well as effecting change on important issues such as achieving DC statehood,” Harrison added.
At the precinct caucuses, in addition to voting on delegates representing presidential candidates, Iowans debated issues then voted on formal resolutions added to their respective party platforms, which the state convention delegates will later be asked to address.