Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has represented the District as its non-voting delegate in the US House since 1991, was reportedly re-elected for the same post.
The Democratic Party candidate is the projected winner of the position, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
Norton had five Independent challengers, one Libertarian challenger and one DC Statehood Green Party candidate challenger. She will start serving her sixteenth term when she takes office.
Norton cannot vote on the final passage of federal legislation, but she can vote in congressional committees. She used to be head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
One shadow US representative and two shadow US senators represent District voters in Congress. However, they do not have the vote, as well as other rights and privileges. They don’t have offices in the buildings where the offices of other members of Congress are located.
The fact that the District does not have voting representation in Congress prompted the DC statehood movement with the slogan “End Taxation Without Representation.”
Norton sponsored bills to make DC the 51st state of the nation, therefore gain full voting representation. The latest such bill passed the Senate, but was not approved by the House.
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser proclaimed July 15 “Officially End Taxation Without Representation Day” on July 15, 2020, marking the filing deadline for tax returns.
“For more than 200 years, the residents of Washington, DC, have been denied full voting representation in Congress, which remains one the most overlooked civil rights issue of modern-day politics,” Bowser said, adding “Washingtonians fulfill all responsibilities of American citizenship, including paying federal taxes, serving in the military, and have fought in all of the nation’s wars, including the Revolutionary War.”
“The only way to permanently end the injustice of taxation without representation for 706,000 DC residents is through statehood,” Bowser continued.