First, the passage of the 23rd Amendment in 1961 gave the District the right to be represented in presidential elections.
In 1973, when Congress passed a “home rule” law, the District became a self-governing municipality with its own elected officials, prosecutors and courts.
This might not have mattered so much if the political makeup of DC matched that of the nation — but in fact, it’s a one-party jurisdiction.
Its local government is utterly dominated by Democrats, and it lopsidedly favors Democrats in presidential elections: Despite losing decisively to Donald Trump last month, Kamala Harris got 92.5% of the DC vote to Trump’s 5% — not much less than the 93% racked up there by 2016 loser Hillary Clinton.
That has sobering implications for any Republican facing criminal charges there.
Because it’s our nation’s capital city, DC is the scene of many political trials, yet its jury pool is as lopsided as the one that tried the Scottsboro Boys.
In fact, when special prosecutor Jack Smith was looking to charge Donald Trump, Democratic lawyers were openly bragging about how biased the DC jury pool is.
Marc Elias gloated that in a city of 700,000, Trump won just 676 GOP primary votes in 2024.
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell joked that Trump was more likely to win the lottery than to get a sympathetic juror in DC.
Likewise, DC juries are notoriously willing to acquit prominent Democrats like lawyer Michael Sussman, charged by special counsel John Durham with lying to the FBI about “Russiagate” rumors but acquitted by what observers called a “nightmare jury.”
You'll want to read the entire article.
