If you live in Puerto Rico, you cannot vote in presidential elections, but you can vote in the primaries. So it’s worth checking to see which candidates support statehood for Puerto Rico.
Democratic candidates
- Joe Biden is the front-runner. Biden has several times spoken out in favor of statehood for Puerto Rico, and has pledged to sign the Puerto Rico Status Act if it reaches his desk.
- Cenk Uygur, the host of The Young Turks, founded a PAC called “Justice Democrats” in 2017. Their public statement included this sentence: “We also support the movement to provide statehood for Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico in order to bring balance to the increasingly skewed Senate.” Uygur was born in Istanbul, and therefore is not eligible to serve as President of the United States.
- Marianne Williamson ran in 2020 as well. At that time, she expressed support for statehood for Puerto Rico.
Republican candidates
- Ryan Binkley has made no statements on Puerto Rico.
- Doug Burgum has made no statements on Puerto Rico.
- Chris Christie said in 2016, “I would be willing to help the people of Puerto Rico, but in return I would have to have strict control over their budgets going forward.” That’s not a statement of his views on statehood, of course, but we have found no other statements.
- Ron DeSantis supported a Puerto Rico statehood bill in 2018.
- Larry Elder has made no statements on Puerto Rico.
- Nikki Haley has made no statements on Puerto Rico.
- Asa Hutchinson has made no statements on Puerto Rico.
- Perry Johnson has made no statements on Puerto Rico.
- Mike Pence made a statement on Puerto Rico in 2010. “If the American citizens of Puerto Rico choose independence, I will support that vote,” Pence said. “If the American citizens of Puerto Rico choose statehood, I will support that vote.”
- Vivek Ramaswamy has made no statements on Puerto Rico.
- Tim Scott has made no statements on Puerto Rico.
- Donald Trump made several statements on Puerto Rico as a candidate and as president. As a candidate he said, “The will of the Puerto Rican people in any status referendum should be considered as Congress follows through on any desired change in status for Puerto Rico, including statehood.” As president he said that statehood was “an absolute no” while then-mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz was in office.
Party platforms
All these candidates represent either the Republican or the Democratic parties, both of which include self-determination or statehood for Puerto Rico in their party platforms. According to Gallup polls over many years, 65% of Americans favor statehood for Puerto Rico. With these two facts in mind, we must conclude that some of the people who havre not committed themselves yet must support statehood.
We want clear statements from all the candidates. Ask your favorite(s) their positions and let us know in the comments what you learn!
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