Name: Erin Palmer  

Occupation: Lawyer 

Hometown: Colorado and California 

Tell me a little bit about yourself. How long have you lived in DC?

I came to DC over twenty years ago for law school. I went to American University’s Washington College of Law, and I’ve been here ever since. I’ve done a number of jobs and professional things since then, including working for a law firm, doing some law school teaching, and now I work for a nonprofit. I also met my husband here while clerking at the DC Court of Appeals and we have three kids, who are growing up here in DC. 

What do you love most about living in DC?

This is a great question, because there are so many things. I very much love the people. It’s really hard for me to describe DC culture, but it is so unique and awesome — it’s the music, Go-go, it’s the food, and it’s just the general vibes, which are really awesome. And related to that, I really like that DC is both — like many places — it’s a city and a set of neighborhoods, but it really has a strong city feel, and also a really strong neighborhood feel. As someone who loves living in a city, that’s great for me, but I also feel like I have a little bit of a small town neighborhood with my immediate neighbors, our little business district, and all the things we have very close by, which I love. 

I also really love DC’s green space. I think we have some of the best green space in the country — we have Rock Creek Park, I love Anacostia Park and the skating pavilion — we just have so many great spots, even just playgrounds and fields and play spaces. There’s a lot of really beautiful green space! 

The last thing that I came up with is that I love that DC is really easy to get around. I don’t drive, and we have a good metro, we have a good bus system — it can of course be improved — but I can get places I need to go really easily and I have a lot of fun walking and exploring the city in all parts. 

Could you talk about your own experience being disenfranchised, or in other words, what it has been like to lose the rights you had when you were living in one of the 50 states?

I think what stood out to me most is that when I moved here, it was very clear — I switched my voter registration and it’s like oh this stuff is no longer on my ballot, it’s a much different thing of presidential elections and then a bunch of local stuff. Where’s the stuff in between, where’s the layered government structure that you have everywhere else? That was immediately noticeable, but I think the thing that stood out to me the most was that in talking to, not just family members, but anyone I know from other times in my life who live in other places, the lack of awareness — people just generally do not think of DC as a place and don’t understand that people live here and have neighborhoods. There’s just such an entrenched conception that DC is the monuments and the federal government, and that’s it. You’re losing certain voting rights and a voice in government through voting, but it’s also just this weird way of being made invisible because DC to many people just does not exist. That stood out to me the most. It’s almost like you filter away in terms of the perception of people across the country and you’re no longer a person. I think that on some level is intentional based on the structure of Home Rule and how it came about, but that stood out to me the most. 

What does achieving statehood mean for you?

This is also a great question. I think there’s a lot of different ways you can answer this. Two things stood out to me. There’s a component of being in DC and living in a place where pockets of the land are controlled by the national government. It’s not just the National Mall — the National Park Service has control of so many pockets of DC’s parks and then don’t maintain them properly. To me, some of this is about gaining control back over certain things. It stands out to me for parks because that’s a tangible thing, and when you see a triangle that isn’t mowed and the DC government is like ‘well it’s not ours,’ and then it sits there unmowed and looks terrible and no one is using it. But it’s also things like what we’re dealing with now with ICE and federal law enforcement and some of the criminal justice related stuff where things happen on federal land and there are potentially different consequences and people who have access to you. For me, part of statehood is gaining possession back of the land that should belong to DC. 

Another part of it is that if we achieve statehood it sends a really strong message about race in our country, because DC has a history of being ‘Chocolate City’ and again, how Home Rule came to be and some of our limitations are race related in wanting to limit Black power and Black votes. Achieving statehood would send a message about having to correct that — I think it’s certainly not financial reparations, but it’s some sort of acknowledgement that there was harm and that the Black people in DC need better, and that DC as a whole deserves these rights, but particularly the people who have been impacted the most. 

What do you think needs to be done to get closer to achieving statehood?  

This is a great question, because we have been fighting for DC statehood for a long time, but in terms of the trajectory of everything, it’s a small window. But, I want to caveat this question — there are things that I think we can and should be doing, but people have been doing these things for a long time. The fight for statehood has existed since the start and we’re on the shoulders of groups like Stand Up! [for Democracy in DC Coalition] (Free DC) and Anise Jenkins and people who have been doing this for a very very long time. 

It’s certainly about some amount of coordination — it’s like an all of government approach. It’s doing stuff locally; it’s doing stuff nationally, but physically local; it’s doing stuff nationally in other places. Robert White has this initiative now to get DC folks out canvassing for and against people based on their views on statehood in nearby jurisdictions and there have been past efforts to do similar things to that, but it’s a good idea for people who are anti-statehood in other places to feel the consequences of being anti-statehood — like you don’t get to do that and not have people be mad at you and to literally have people in their business telling them that it’s not okay. 

I think there’s some shift that needs to happen where people in other parts of the country don’t just view this as how you count votes in Congress, and more as a moral outrage. I get that it’s likely to help Democrats, but I don’t want that to be the argument anymore, I want it to be that we deserve this no matter what, even if we were deep red — we deserve these rights as people. I would like for there to be growing consciousness about the moral wrong taking place here. 

And then some amount of it is just luck. It’s things falling into place at the right time and having a window and hopefully having people in various positions that are adept at navigating when there’s a window of opportunity and leaping on it. It’s all of those things. Much of it is happening already now, but hopefully the stars align and it comes together in a way that makes meaningful change soon.  

Is there anything else you would like to say? 

I wasn’t born in DC, I’m not a native Washingtonian, and I think that’s a different perspective than people who grew up here, but I’ll also note that having kids — it didn’t change how I felt about things, but it changed the lens with which I view statehood, and that this is all they’ve known, this is all they’ve experienced. They haven’t had the life experience of living somewhere where they had rights in that way, so they have nothing to compare it to and I hope that they’ll grow up not thinking that it’s normal. Sometimes we’ll have conversations about the National Guard and they’re like ‘oh I don’t really remember before they were here’ and I’m like ‘ugh’ — you have to remember that certain things are not normal and not right, even if it’s the thing you’ve lived with your entire life. And again, I know there are longtime statehood advocates that have that perspective, and I hope that my kids become a part of that movement. 

[this interview was conducted in August 2026]