Celebrities Join Push for DC Statehood

District of Columbia officials are enlisting Hollywood celebrities to call attention to their push to make the nation's capital a state.

The Creative Coalition is hosting a luncheon on the statehood issue Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Joining D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Paul Strauss, the District's "shadow senator," will be actors Elizabeth Banks, Tim Daly, Josh Gad, Ashley Judd and David Schwimmer, among others.

Bowser's administration is putting a statehood referendum on the ballot this fall. Residents will vote on whether to send a constitution for the proposed new state to Congress. But Congress will have no obligation to act, and many consider statehood to be an impossible goal as long as the District is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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