This should be interesting, but Republicans like Rubio won't vote for statehood and diluting their stranglehold over the electoral college and the federal government. It might be a while.
As far as DC statehood goes, it is constitutionally mandated that there must be a federal district for the federal government, which of course could be reduced in size as proposed here.
However, this rump district of a few buildings would still be entitled to three electoral votes per the 23rd Amendment which would be a rather ludicrous situation.
Why should a city be a state? Why not just return the residential parts of D.C. To MD? In the 1840's the VA part of D.C. (Arlington and Alexandria counties) was returned to VA. Follow the same process for what remains of D.C., except for a small federal district. MD would get one more congressman and one more EV, then the 3 EVs for D.C. can be repealed.
Where in the Constitution is there any provision that bars a city from being a state? Population density should not and has not ever determined whether an area can achieve statehood.
