Name: Brandon Bush
Occupation: Communications Strategist & Consultant
Hometown: Kansas City, KS / Dallas, Texas
Tell me a little bit about yourself. How long have you lived in DC?
I first came to DC in 2017, and decided to move here to live in October of 2020. So, I've been in DC for a little more than 8 years.
Why did you decide to move to DC?
I originally came to attend Howard University, and lived in the dorms throughout my matriculation until the pandemic. Upon moving back, I decided that I wanted to stay because I loved the city. I felt that I had become the adult and professional I was meant to be as an attribute of being a Howard student and now DC resident.
What do you love most about living in DC?
I love that there is always something to do or somewhere to go here. I always tell family, friends, or inquiring minds that ‘if you're bored in DC, it's because you want to be.’ With DC being fairly walkable, you can always stumble onto a farmers' market, a cute coffee shop, an artisan wine bar, or an event with live music. DC is what you make it, and if you want to make an experience out of DC, it's largely accessible to you.
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?
The feeling of helplessness, in the socio-political sense, is fairly foreign to me. Part of the Black and Queer experience in America is regularly having to contend with facing impossibly grim odds and realities. However, I came incredibly close to that feeling when I witnessed the occupation of DC amid the Trump administration's "crackdown on crime." It was like a scene out of a dystopian film; you could almost feel the color drain from the city with every new caravan filled with federal agents and national guard soldiers entering the city. Knowing that we had no representatives, senators, or governor to act as our go-between, middlemen, or liaisons made me realize just how few rights we have as citizens born and raised in this nation. Naturally, I couldn't help but to think of people who lived and contributed taxes in DC without such privilege as I had been born into – those without birthright citizenship or who are here on conditional visas were especially vulnerable.
What does achieving statehood mean for you?
Achieving statehood means that I can at least sleep a little bit better at night knowing that I, as a transplant resident of DC, and the people who live around me don't only have representation for representation's sake. It means having a voice. It means having more of a say over our own governance as a people with our own identity, culture, customs, and ways of life. It means sovereignty.
What do you think needs to be done to get closer to achieving statehood?
Statehood has been an uphill battle for residents, activists, organizers, politicians, and communications professionals for decades. The first problem is the messaging; that this issue is anything less than emblematic and symptomatic of an oppressive experience. Approximately 700,000 tax paying citizens in America, more or less, live in a territory where we have little influence on how our government is run, which does affect our personal and political livelihoods. The invasion of our city set the tone and tenor for what continues to play out in Chicago, Memphis, and Portland. The message is that what happens to others CAN and WILL happen to you, so we all must have a shared investment in the fight for rights for all American citizens and non-citizens.
The second issue is exposure. This issue is framed as one that only pertains to DC residents. And when the president is painting said residents as criminals and degenerates in the media, people won't see the vision of statehood. It's also talked about as a power grab by Democrats (which is ironic, all things considered). We need more people with platforms talking about this, identifying their lived experiences within ours, and sharing our stories.
[this interview was conducted in October 2025]