Name: Walt Ennaco

Occupation: Engineer 

Hometown: Agawam, MA 

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

I have lived in the DC area since 2002 and in DC since 2010.

Why did you decide to move to DC?

I moved to DC to be closer to the DC transportation services of Metro trains and buses - which made it a lot easier for my work and our many trips downtown to take advantage of the DC resources (museums, theater, restaurants, etc).

What do you love most about living in DC?

DC is a great place to walk, easy to take a Metro or bus, and enjoy the many social opportunities like museums, volunteering, monuments, concerts, theater, restaurants, etc.  It is just a beautiful city.

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?

At first, I did not realize I had lost the ability to have the voice in government that I had when living in a state. Recently, it has become much more apparent and especially frustrating knowing that I cannot have a representative in Congress. Without any representation in Congress, I feel like we in DC are just throwing our time and money in the air and hoping it does something good. Participating in protests is somewhat of a frustration outlet, but not enough. 

What makes it even worse is that we don't even have a firm say in basic laws, services, or use of our DC taxes, never mind the federal taxes. When some midwest congressman can sponsor a bill to change stuff as basic as "no right turn on red" or a president can close a golf course, you quickly realize you are nothing but a source of money for bad ideas, which you cannot have a say in! What is wrong with 700,000+ people having a say in electing their own officials and enacting laws for DC and the US?

What does achieving statehood mean for you?

How long does DC have to go without statehood?  It has been way over 200 years! Statehood means we are part of the USA and can be a part of the democratic process. This means a lot to me. Without it, I might as well move to another country (Canada looks pretty good now!). 

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

We need to do something radically different than what we have been doing for 250 years.  Republicans will never allow statehood as long as we vote 90% Democrat. 

I think the best strategy to statehood would be to pursue a phased increase of states’ rights to reach the goal of full statehood. The first sub-goal should be to claim, get, and hold onto the ability to possess the management and use of our tax dollars and any additional federal funds appropriated through Congress (to include National Guard authority) without any interference or “authority” from Congress or the Executive Branch. The next subgoal should be that our non-voting congressional representatives in the House and Senate should be able to have their votes count. This could also be phased, if needed (votes count for any funding bills but not for some other things.) What happens after that needs to be part of the overall strategy, but I am not sure what that entails. Who should write this strategy?  If Democrats ever get the majority in Congress again, then a bipartisan group of representatives should figure out the particulars based on the broad strategy we, as citizens of DC, come up with now! We need to be ready when the administration changes, so we need to draft what we want and when we want it now. 

We cannot wait as we did in the Obama era, as we let it slip by us. This may never happen in my lifetime, but any timeline to do this is better than never. And any phased approach is better than an all-or-nothing non-starter.

[this interview was conducted in August 2026]