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It was April, 2007. The House of Representatives was debating a bill to increase the size of the House from 435 to 437 Members. Utah would score an extra seat. And the District of Columbia would secure a seat on the House floor.
Washington, DC isn’t a state. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., has served as the city’s non-voting delegate to Congress since 1991. And even though she couldn’t cast a ballot on that bill for DC, Norton was in the middle of the debate which teed up the bill.
Then-Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., asked Norton if “the gentlelady would yield” during her floor remarks, trying to get in a word edgewise.
Dreier stood a better chance at getting a harried driver to yield to him on an entrance ramp to the 405 than Norton granting him a moment to interrupt her.
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“I will not yield, sir!” yelled Norton, staring at Dreier across the House chamber. “The District of Columbia has spent 206 years yielding (to) the people who would deny them the vote! I yield you no ground! Not during my time! You have had your say! And your say has been that you think that the people who live in your capital are not entitled to a vote in their House! Shame on you!”
The excoriation of Dreier was signature Norton. Forceful. Fearless. Passionate.
Whether you endorse her politics or not, Norton has been the loudest voice for the people of Washington, DC for a staggering 18 terms.
But the 88-year-old Norton is now silent. Perhaps during the most perilous period for self-governance in the District of Columbia in five decades.
President Trump deployed hundreds of National Guard troops and federal agents into the streets of Washington this week – effectively bigfooting local control of the police.
Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has been outspoken against the intervention.
“The numbers just don’t justify the action. We have seen a precipitous lessening of crime in the city,” said Bowser. “Violent crime especially.”
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DC lacks senators since it isn’t a state. So other local lawmakers piped up.
“I’m very concerned. The President is showing all of his authoritarian tendencies,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “We have this decision by the President to essentially federalize the DC police at a time when actually crime in the District of Columbia is at a 30 year low last year.”
Even Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) took up DC’s plight.
“The President isn’t really interested in stopping and solving this public health issue known as gun violence. He’s pointing a finger at Baltimore and DC and other cities,” said Scott. “If the President were concerned and really wanted to work with cities to do that, he would bolster the strategies that are already working on the ground instead of trying to militarize police and law enforcement where they do not need to be.”
But Norton’s largely invisible.
Her office posted a boilerplate statement on X Wednesday. It declared that “President Trump made a grave error on several levels by taking over MPD and deploying the DC National Guard without DC’s agreement.” Norton argued that the president “unintentionally made the strongest possible case for #DCStatehood.”
An accompanying photo of Norton wasn’t even current. It depicted Norton in a winter shawl – hardly seasonal for the steamy conditions baking Washington in mid-August.
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Norton’s office turned down multiple requests for an interview this week. Norton’s staff also declined a request for an interview after a gunman murdered Capitol Hill intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym – a student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst after his death earlier this summer. However, an aide did provide a statement.
Norton last spoke on the House floor in mid-June.
“Residents have no voting representation in Congress and Congress has the ultimate say on local DC matters,” said Norton at the time.
Questions started to swirl earlier this year about whether Norton was up to the job.
A reporter asked DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) in June if the Delegate should run for a 19th term next year.
“Congresswoman Norton has been a good representative of the District. She has been a warrior on the Hill,” said Mendelson.
Bowser also ducked directly answering a question about Norton back in the spring.
“I am really focused on making sure our city is strong politically and stable economically and I think there is time for talking about elections and I don’t choose to do that right now,” said Bowser.
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In July, a reporter didn’t mention Norton by name when they asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., if “every member of the Democratic caucus was fit mentally and physically to serve?”
The inquiry came after the deaths of late Reps. Sylvester Turner, D-Tex., Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Gerry Connolly, D-Va. And this conversation matures as House Republicans probe the cognitive state of former President Biden.
“That’s not a discussion that we have had at the moment with individual Members who are going to make decisions about their future,” answered Jeffries. “And it’s my expectation that those decisions will be based on what Members conclude is in the best interests of the communities that they have been privileged to represent – as well as themselves, their families, and the values that they hold dear that we are in the middle of defending on behalf of the American people.”
The issue of elderly politicians continues to vex the Democratic Party.
Kinny Zalesne is a former Justice Department official running for Norton’s seat in 2026.
“If I were the Delegate, I would be on TV 24/7, making the case for DC and telling the truth about what’s happening in our city and the truth about the administration’s overreach,” Zalesne told Fox.
In June, Norton told a clutch of Capitol Hill reporters that she intended to run again next year. But within a couple of hours, her office dialed that back, saying Norton hadn’t finalized her decision.
The voters of DC will finalize their decision in the midterm elections. The reasons for Norton’s relative quiet only spur conjecture and speculation – fueled by what happened with former President Biden other Democratic lawmakers.
DC doesn’t have a vote on the House floor. But it does have a voice in Congress. And right now, the silence is deafening.
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