Update, 2/28: Senator Tom Carper of Delaware formally introduced D.C. statehood legislation in the Senate today, backed by a total of 29 senators.

“‘Taxation without representation’ is not just something students read about history books; it is the current reality for the over 700,000 people living in the District of Columbia,” said Carper in a statement. “Lack of fair representation is inconsistent with the values we all share as Americans.”

The original co-sponsors alongside Carper are: Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Catherine Cortez Mastro (D-Nev.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.), per his office.

Original: Senator Mark Warner of Virginia will be co-sponsoring D.C. statehood legislation in the Senate, which would grant the 702,000 residents who neighbor his state full representation on Capitol Hill. The bill is expected to be introduced shortly.

Warner made his announcement on D.C. Statehood Lobby Day, when hundreds of advocates descended on the Capitol to make the case with federal lawmakers for the District to become the 51st state, after meeting with Mayor Muriel Bowser. She characterized Warner as “a Democrat that we’ve been going after for a long time, and it’s so important that he’s going to come on to co-sponsor our bill.” The other Virginia senator, Tim Kaine, is already on board.

https://twitter.com/MarkWarner/status/1100826165701427200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1100826165701427200&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdcist.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D4794437%26action%3Dedit

The bill would make D.C.’s eight wards a state, which would be represented by two senators and one House member. The U.S. Capitol Complex, the National Mall, and other sites would still be federal property. Currently, D.C. has no senators and a delegate rather than a representative in the House, despite having a larger population than two states.

As in years past, Senator Tom Carper of Delaware will introduce the bill in the Senate. “District of Columbia residents work, study, raise families, and start businesses here in this beautiful and thriving city, just like people in the 50 states of our union,” Carper told DCist the last time he introduced the measure. “It is incumbent upon those of us who enjoy the right and the privilege of a voice and a vote in Congress to take up the cause of our fellow citizens here in the District.”

Josh Burch, founder and organizer of Neighbors United For D.C. Statehood, says that Warner makes 28 senators who will co-sponsor the bill when it’s introduced. There are four senators who co-sponsored last time who may add their names as well, he says, and between four and six additional senators who advocates spoke with today. “I don’t want to get ahead of it, but it might be up to 36 or 38” co-sponsors, Burch says. They’re all Democrats, though Burch says statehood advocates met with three Republicans—Tim Scott of South Carolina, Cory Gardner of Colorado, and Susan Collins of Maine—and remains optimistic

“We’ve had very good conversations with their staff,” says Burch. “I hold out hope those senators will see this an issue of fairness.” Typically, Republicans are loath to support D.C. statehood because, as former Ohio governor John Kasich put it, “that’s just more votes in the Democratic Party.” Without Republican support, a statehood bill can’t pass the GOP-led Senate.

Already, the statehood bill introduced by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton in the House of Representatives has a record number of co-sponsors and the support of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While that bill, HR 51, has not yet received a committee hearing, Norton characterized a forthcoming floor vote on a voting rights bill as “historic” for statehood, because it states that “District of Columbia residents deserve full congressional voting rights and self-government, which only statehood can provide.”

https://twitter.com/EleanorNorton/status/1100824755941322752