WASHINGTON, D.C. — When it comes to the debate over making the District of Columbia the 51st state, the battle lines are clear.

Democrats like Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting delegate in Congress, have long argued the city’s residents deserve representation and that by redefining the capital to include just the National Mall and federal buildings, the rest of the city could become a new state.

While Republicans like Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, say the push is about increasing Democratic control since the city overwhelmingly votes for Democrats.

“It's all about creating two new Democrat U.S. Senate seats. That’s what it's about. This bill is part of the progressive pathway that President Biden, Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have to reshape America into that socialist utopia that the Squad talk about,” said Comer at the mark up of the bill Wednesday.

"The Squad" is made up of four progressive women in Congress including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

“The constitution gives Congress the authority to admit new states, which it has done 37 times,” said Holmes Norton. “D.C.’s population is larger than two states. D.C. pays more federal taxes per capita than any state and pays more federal taxes than 21 states."

Wayne Gilchrest, a former Maryland Republican Congressman, said it was less partisan during the 1993 vote on D.C. statehood. Democrats weren't as unified on the issue, and he was the lone Republican to support the bill.

“Along comes the vote on D.C. statehood. How hard is that,” he laughed.

“The leadership of both parties didn’t want D.C. to be a state so they took a whip count to ensure that it wouldn’t happen. When the vote came, Ben Cardin and I were in the back. Someone said 'Gilchrest, get down here, get down here, you made a mistake, you made a mistake! Your vote look. You voted aye.' And I said I meant to. I was very proud to defend it in my district when people asked me about it,” he recalled.

Ben Cardin is now a Democratic Senator representing Maryland.

Advocates for D.C. statehood maintain their struggle cannot be divorced from race and that one reason D.C. statehood was long dismissed as a fringe issue is because the city's population was majority Black for decades. In the political tug-of-war, Gilchrest said rarely does the conversation truly focus on city residents.

There are more than 712,000 residents in the district.

“This is the best thing for the people in the District of Columbia. You are in Washington not to be a chairman of a committee or to control something. You are there to create good public policy,” Gilchrest said.

After 18 years in Congress, Gilchrest lost his seat in a Republican primary in 2008. He changed his party affiliation to Democratic in 2019.

The vote on H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, will take place in the House next week.

Even though it is expected to pass along party lines, it faces long odds in the Senate where Democrats lack the 60 votes to advance the bill in the upper chamber.

Last year D.C. statehood was approved by the Democratic led House for the first time in history.