D.C. Shadow Senator Paul Strauss with former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, one of the first sponsors of the Statehood Act in 1991. Picture courtesy of Twitter.

The rest of the country may have turned its eyes from Iowa after the caucuses on February 1, but D.C. statehood advocates are still focused on the Hawkeye State, where eight counties will deliberate on including a resolution in support of statehood in their party platforms.

“We are still working hard to see this issue stay front and center all the way to the state convention and into the state platform,” says Tamyra Harrison of Iowans for D.C. Statehood, a grassroots group that includes current and former elected officials. While presidential candidates get the lion’s share of attention, caucuses also allow Iowans to begin the process of adopting party platforms.

The eight counties that will consider the resolution—Boone, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Cass, Clinton, Keokuk, Page and Polk—include all four Congressional districts in the state. If these counties approve of adding it to their platforms during their March 12 conventions, “the next step is making sure it makes it then to each of the four congressional district platforms in April and ultimately the state platform in June,” explains Harrison.

And it’s the state platform that advocates are eyeing. “Having it on the state platform is the first step to getting [the D.C. statehood resolution] on the national platform,” says D.C. Shadow Senator Paul Strauss. While he says that he’s not sure whether D.C.-based advocates will return in Iowa for the county conventions, due to a lack of resources, “I know we’re going to be engaged whether or not we personally travel back to support our supporters on the ground. At some point, we’ll be back in Iowa to close the deal.”

The District’s shadow delegation went to Iowa to caucus on behalf of statehood earlier this month alongside Iowans for D.C. Statehood. This journey was the culmination of work that began in March of last year, when Strauss visited the state and received the support of the Polk County Democrats, who passed a resolution to support D.C. statehood and include the issue at the caucuses.

The passage of the resolution in eight counties falls short of the goal listed on the Iowans for D.C. Statehood website by 16 counties, but Strauss is pleased by the outcome. “I’m not supposed to brag about this, but we did better than a lot of other, well-funded resolutions,” he says.

He adds that he has gotten calls from folks in other states, like Nevada, but remains heartened by the response from Iowans during his time there. “Their first attitude is, ‘Wow, these are Americans and that’s unfair,'” Strauss says. “In a year of political outsiders, we’ve got to take our message outside.”