Photo by Mr.TinDC.

Photo by Mr.TinDC.

Update: The Democratic Party Platform draft is now officially out and includes statehood as expected.

Original: A draft version of the Democratic national platform includes support for D.C. statehood, according to D.C. Shadow Senator Paul Strauss.

Based on emails obtained from the DNC drafting committee, the draft platform contains the following language:

D.C. Statehood

Restoring our democracy also means finally passing statehood for Washington, D.C., so that its citizens have full and equal congressional rights and the right to have the laws and budget of their local government respected without Congressional interference.

While the full draft has not yet been released by the DNC, it was passed by the drafting committee this weekend. The DNC platform committee has not responded to requests for comment.

The two candidates for the Democratic nomination—Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders—have already both come out in support of full statehood for the District.

“We have an evolving consensus within the Democratic party that, not only is D.C.’s unequal status is wrong, but that statehood is the appropriate remedy going forward,” says Strauss.

This would be the first time the word “statehood” has appeared in the DNC platform since 2000.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has announced plans to propose legislation that would put D.C. statehood on the November ballot, and released a draft statehood constitution that, earlier this month, went through edits at a constitutional convention. And Strauss has been traveling to states with caucuses, like Iowa and Nevada, to get support for the measure in state platforms.

Republicans, who have been working in the House of Representatives to limit D.C.’s ability to control its local funds, are generally less supportive of statehood. Ohio Governor John Kasich said that he opposed statehood because “that’s just more votes in the Democratic Party.”

However, the Libertarian Party nominee is in favor of statehood.

This draft goes for final vote of approval at a meeting of the full platform committee in Orlando on July 8 and 9.

This story has been updated.

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