Should Puerto Rico be granted statehood?
Yes
Mike Bloomberg (Dropped out)
Former New York mayor
Bloomberg is no longer running for president. Bloomberg “believes Puerto Rico should have full statehood. He believes that Puerto Ricans residing on the island should no longer be treated as second-class citizens, and should be afforded all the rights and support provided to all other American citizens. It is time we answered the call for equity and provide equal justice to all Americans,” his campaign website said.
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John Delaney (Dropped out)
Former U.S. representative, Maryland
Delaney is no longer running for president. Delaney supports statehood for Puerto Rico, he told The Post.
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Bill de Blasio (Dropped out)
Mayor, New York City
de Blasio is no longer running for president. De Blasio supports statehood for Puerto Rico, he told The Post.
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Jay Inslee (Dropped out)
Governor, Washington state
Inslee is no longer running for president. "I’ve always supported statehood for Puerto Rico and D.C. People have got to have representation — 700,000 people in the District of Columbia is as large as Wyoming," Inslee told Vox.
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Seth Moulton (Dropped out)
U.S. representative, Massachusetts
Moulton is no longer running for president. Moulton’s campaign website calls for “giving all Americans representation by granting statehood to Puerto Rico and D.C.”
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Beto O'Rourke (Dropped out)
Former U.S. representative, Texas
O'Rourke is no longer running for president. “The people of Puerto Rico rightly demand that the United States government hear their voices,” a campaign spokesman told The Post. “[O’Rourke] supports the timely resolution of Puerto Rico’s political status by ensuring that the federal government acts in accordance with the democratically expressed will of the people of Puerto Rico, whether by an up or down vote on statehood or otherwise.”
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Marianne Williamson (Dropped out)
Author
Williamson is no longer running for president. Williamson supports statehood for Puerto Rico, she told The Post.
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Andrew Yang (Dropped out)
Tech entrepreneur
Yang is no longer running for president. The platform on Yang's campaign site backs Puerto Rican statehood, saying "Puerto Ricans overwhelmingly want to be a state, and we should endorse this and make it happen."
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Let them decide
Michael Bennet (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, Colorado
Bennet is no longer running for president. Bennet supports allowing Puerto Ricans to choose whether they want to join the union, he told The Post.
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Cory Booker (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, New Jersey
Booker is no longer running for president. Booker supports allowing Puerto Ricans to choose whether they want to join the union.
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Steve Bullock (Dropped out)
Governor, Montana
Bullock is no longer running for president. “This decision should be left to Puerto Ricans to decide,” Bullock told The Post. “I support the right of Puerto Rico’s residents to decide for themselves their future relationship with the United States.”
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Pete Buttigieg (Dropped out)
Former mayor, South Bend, Ind.
Buttigieg is no longer running for president. "If they want it," Buttigieg told the Intercept.
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Julian Castro (Dropped out)
Former mayor, San Antonio
Castro is no longer running for president. Castro tweeted support for a variety of voting changes in March, including "self-determination for Puerto Rico."
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Tulsi Gabbard (Dropped out)
U.S. representative, Hawaii
Gabbard is no longer running for president. In 2015, Gabbard co-sponsored the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Process Act to allow for a vote on the island's admission as a state.
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Kirsten Gillibrand (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, New York
Gillibrand is no longer running for president. Gillibrand supports allowing Puerto Ricans to choose whether they want to join the union.
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John Hickenlooper (Dropped out)
Former governor, Colorado
Hickenlooper is no longer running for president. Hickenlooper supports allowing Puerto Ricans to choose whether they want to join the union, he told The Post.
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Amy Klobuchar (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, Minnesota
Klobuchar is no longer running for president. Klobuchar supports allowing Puerto Ricans to choose whether they want to join the union, she told The Post.
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Deval Patrick (Dropped out)
Former governor, Massachusetts
Patrick is no longer running for president. “If the people of Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico wish to pursue formal statehood, they will have that chance during a Patrick administration and will be welcomed as states,” his democracy agenda said.
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Tim Ryan (Dropped out)
U.S. representative, Ohio
Ryan is no longer running for president. In 2015, Ryan co-sponsored the Puerto Rico Statehood Admission Process Act to allow for a vote on the island's admission as a state.
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Bernie Sanders (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, Vermont
Sanders is no longer running for president. "I support the right of the people of Puerto Rico to decide their own future and governance," Sanders told The Post.
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Joe Sestak (Dropped out)
Former U.S. representative, Pennsylvania
Sestak is no longer running for president. Sestak supports allowing Puerto Ricans to choose whether they want to join the union, he told The Post.
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Tom Steyer (Dropped out)
Billionaire activist
Steyer is no longer running for president. “I support allowing Puerto Ricans to choose whether they want to join the union,” he told The Post.
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Eric Swalwell (Dropped out)
U.S. representative, California
Swalwell is no longer running for president. “Yes, if that’s the will of the people living there,” Swalwell told The Post.
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Elizabeth Warren (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, Massachusetts
Warren is no longer running for president. "Puerto Rico has a right to determine the nature of its association with the United States and I will support the decision of the people of Puerto Rico," Warren told The Post.
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Unclear/No response
Joe Biden
Former vice president
"I have always found Puerto Rico's current political status as something very bizarre. My word of advice to you, and all Puerto Ricans, is that you continue to fight hard until you reach your goal of equality, and we shall act," Biden said in 2015, according to the Orlando Sentinel. His campaign had not returned answers by May 7.
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Kamala D. Harris (Dropped out)
U.S. senator, California
Harris is no longer running for president. Harris did not provide an answer to this question.
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Background Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) in March released legislation to make Puerto Rico, an island territory of the United States for more than a century, the 51st state in America. Puerto Rico elects a non-voting member of the U.S. House, but it does not have two senators or a vote in U.S. presidential general elections. (Puerto Rico does vote in both parties’ presidential primaries.) The island has been in an economic recession and debt crisis for more than a decade, and faces uneven support from the federal government.
Statehood is a divisive issue in Puerto Rico, although the former governor was an adamant supporter of making the island the 51st state. A 2017 referendum on the statehood question was overwhelmingly approved but boycotted and derided as illegitimate by those in Puerto Rico opposed to statehood.
The Post is sending detailed questionnaires to every Democratic candidate asking for their stances on various issues. See all the issues we’ve asked about so far.
See our other questions on changes to democracy:
- Do you support eliminating the electoral college in favor of the popular vote?
- Should Democrats eliminate the Senate filibuster the next time they control the chamber?
- Would you support adding justices to ‘pack’ the Supreme Court?
- Would you support term limits for Supreme Court justices?
- Should any individuals be able to vote while incarcerated?
- Should citizens be automatically registered to vote when they turn 18?
- Should Election Day be a national holiday?
- Should Washington, D.C., be granted statehood?
- Should the voting age be lowered from 18 to 16?
How candidate positions were compiled
The Washington Post sent a detailed questionnaire to every Democratic campaign asking whether it supports various changes to the Senate filibuster, U.S. elections and courts. Candidates with similar stances were organized into groups using a combination of those answers, legislative records, action taken in an executive role and other public comments, such as policy discussion on campaign websites, social media posts, interviews, town hall meetings and other news reports. See something we missed? Let us know.
This page will update as we learn more about the candidates’ plans. We also will note if candidates change their position on an issue. At initial publication, this page included major candidates who had announced a run for president. If a candidate dropped out after a question was published here, their stance is included under the "Show former candidates" option. If they dropped out before a question was first published, the Post did not reach out to get their stance.
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Candidate illustrations by Ben Kirchner.