Although Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia have petitioned for Statehood multiple times, neither the House nor the Senate has acted on these petitions. Why not? In Senator Mitch McConnell’s case, the reason is probably some combination of racism and politics: Senator McConnell is a member of the Republican Party, so he might reasonably fear that Puerto Rico and D.C. would tilt the balance of political power in the U.S. Senate by electing a cohort of four racial and ethnic minorities–two of them Spanish-speaking and all of them Democrats–to that august body. Still, this theory does not explain Nancy Pelosi’s inaction. (Also, the case of D.C. might require a constitutional amendment, since it is a federal enclave under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.)