Many incumbents lost their Congressional seats in the midterm votes, but some Puerto Rican champions of Puerto Rico self-determination will be returning to Congress triumphant. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ritchie Torres, Nellie Pou, Maxwell Frost, and Darren Soto, all of whom are of Puerto Rican heritage, all won election or reelection.
Puerto Rico Status Act
Soto is expected to reintroduce the Puerto Rico Status Act next term, after he survived gerrymandering intended to threaten his Florida seat. Apart from Nellie Pou, who was elected in 2024, all these lawmakers voted in favor of the Puerto Rico Status Act when it passed the House in 2022.
The PRSA had 101 cosponsors, many of whom will still be in Congress next term.
Statehood supporters
Those legislators who voted for the Puerto Rico Status Act favor a binding vote for a new, permanent, non-territorial political status. That doesn’t mean that they all support statehood. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, has not committed herself to support for statehood. Soto, Maxwell, Torres, and Frost have all advocated strongly for Puerto Rico statehood.
The Puerto Rico Statehood Act, a compromise bill uniting the self-determination camp with the statehood camp, called for a final referendum in Puerto Rico offering three choices:
- statehood
- independence
- independence with free associatio
Having voted four times for statehood in democratic actions of self-determination, Puerto Rico has already self-determined its preferred status option. Talk of “self-determination” often is used to bypass responsibility for resolving Puerto Rico’s status. It’s also used as a delaying tactic by separatists who hope to win a status vote eventually, if they can keep Puerto Rico from being admitted as a state long enough to see a change in the Island’s views.
Governor Gonzalez-Colon, who has already sent an official request for statehood to Congress, hopes to see a final, binding referendum in the form of a yes or no vote on statehood, like the votes taken in Hawaii and Alaska.
Others
While the majority of Puerto Rico voters and the majority of Americans in general support statehood for Puerto Rico, there are some who have other ideas. This includes separatists who support independence for Puerto Rico. Some of these separatists claim that incoming freshman in the new congress such as Chris Rabb, Cori Bush, and Darializa Ávila Chevalier support independence for Puerto Rico. However, we have previously seen claims from their organization that lawmaker Tom McClintock intended to introduce independence bills which never materialized.
In fact, there has not been an independence bill for Puerto Rico in Congress since Rep. Luis Gutiérrez introduced one in 2017, before a referendum on the Island in which statehood won 97% of the votes. Independence got less than 2%. Gutiérrez’s bill had no cosponsors and died in committee.
The third traditional status option for Puerto Rico has been “enhanced commonwealth,” an unconstitutional fantasy status which the current resident commissioner supports. He has introduced his own “Democratic Puerto Rico Status Bill” which includes the discredited “commonwealth” option.
Senator Roger Wicker introduced a similar bill in 2023, using the definition of “commonwealth” proposed by Jose Luis Dalmau.
The strong showing of Puerto Ricans in Congress should help move statehood forward for Puerto Rico, but it is essential that other lawmakers also learn about the importance of this issue. If their constituents care about Puerto Rico’s status, these senators and House members will care, too. Make sure your elected representatives know that you care.
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