The posts of shadow United States senator and shadow United States representative are held by elected or appointed government officials from subnational polities of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

that lack congressional vote. While these officials are not seated in either chamber of Congress, they seek recognition for their subnational polity, up to full statehood. This would enfranchise them with full voting rights on the floor of the

US House The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

and

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, alongside existing states. , only the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

currently have authorized shadow delegations to Congress.

History

Historically, shadow members of Congress were elected by organized incorporated territories prior to their admission to the Union. From its origins in Tennessee, this approach is sometimes known as the Tennessee Plan. The first shadow senators,

William Blount William Blount (March 26, 1749March 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, statesman, farmer and land speculator who signed the United States Constitution. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention o ...

and

William Cocke William Cocke (1748August 22, 1828) was an American lawyer, pioneer, and statesman. He has the distinction of having served in the state legislatures of four different states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, and was one of t ...

of the

Southwest Territory The Territory South of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Southwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1790, until June 1, 1796, when it was admitted to the United States a ...

, were elected in March 1796 before being seated as senators representing the newly formed state of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, and

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

likewise elected shadow senators before statehood. The Alaska Territory also elected the first shadow U.S. representative, Ralph Julian Rivers, in 1956. All were eventually seated in Congress as voting members, except for Alaska shadow senator William A. Egan, who instead became governor.

District of Columbia officeholders

The election of shadow congresspersons from the District of Columbia is authorized by a state constitution ratified by D.C. voters in 1982 but was never approved by Congress.

District of Columbia shadow senators

The voters of the District of Columbia elect two shadow U.S. senators who are known as senators by the District of Columbia but are not officially sworn in or seated by the U.S. Senate. Shadow U.S. senators were first elected in 1990. The current shadow United States senators from the District of Columbia are

Paul Strauss Paul Eric Strauss (born April 11, 1964) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States shadow senator from the District of Columbia since 1997. He succeeded Jesse Jackson, the first person to hold the elected posit ...

and Mike Brown. , - style="height:2em" ! rowspan=8 , 1 , rowspan=8 align=left ,

Florence Pendleton Florence Howard Pendleton (January 28, 1926 – September 10, 2020) was an American political activist who served as a shadow senator from the District of Columbia from 1991 to 2007. Pendleton's main goal as shadow senator was to promote the ef ...

, rowspan=8 , Democratic , rowspan=8 nowrap width=14% , Jan 3, 1991 –
Jan 3, 2007 , rowspan=2 width=12% , Elected in 1990. , rowspan=2 , 1 , , rowspan=3 , 1 , rowspan=3 width=12% , Elected in 1990.
Retired. , rowspan=3 nowrap width=14% , Jan 3, 1991 –
Jan 3, 1997 , rowspan=3 , Democratic , rowspan=3 align=right , JesseJackson

Jesse Jackson ! rowspan=3 , 1 , - style="height:2em" , , - style="height:2em" , rowspan=3 , Re-elected in 1994. , rowspan=3 , 2 , , - style="height:2em" , , rowspan=3 , 2 , rowspan=3 , Elected in 1996. , rowspan=15 nowrap wdith=14% , Jan 3, 1997 –
present , rowspan=15 , Democratic , rowspan=15 align=right , Senator Paul Strauss (cropped)

! rowspan=15 , 2 , - style="height:2em" , , - style="height:2em" , rowspan=3 , Re-elected in 2000.
Was not re-nominated as a Democrat.
Lost re-election bid as an independent. , rowspan=3 , 3 , , - style="height:2em" , , rowspan=3 , 3 , rowspan=3 , Re-elected in 2002. , - style="height:2em" , , - style="height:2em" ! rowspan=9 , 2 , rowspan=9 align=left , Michael Donald Brown

Mike Brown , rowspan=4 , Democratic , rowspan=9 nowrap width=14% , Jan 3, 2007 –
present , rowspan=3 , Elected in 2006. , rowspan=3 , 4 , , - style="height:2em" , , rowspan=3 , 4 , rowspan=3 , Re-elected in 2008. , - style="height:2em" , , - style="height:2em" , rowspan=3 , Re-elected in 2012. , rowspan=3 , 5 , , - style="height:2em" , ,

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, , rowspan=3 , 5 , rowspan=3 , Re-elected in 2014. , - style="height:2em" , rowspan=4 , Democratic , , - style="height:2em" , rowspan=3 , Re-elected in 2018. , rowspan=3 , 6 , , - style="height:2em" , , rowspan=3 , 6 , rowspan=3 , Re-elected in 2020. , - style="height:2em" , , - style=height:2em" , rowspan=1 colspan=5 , To be determined in the 2024 election. , 7 ,

District of Columbia shadow representatives

The voters of the District of Columbia elect one shadow representative who is recognized as equivalent to U.S. representatives by the District of Columbia but is not recognized by the U.S. government as an actual member of the House of Representatives. A shadow representative was first elected in 1990. Inaugural office-holder Charles Moreland held the seat for two terms. In November 2020, Oye Owolewa was elected to succeed retiring shadow representative Franklin Garcia. D.C.'s shadow U.S. representative should not be confused with the

non-voting Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with ...

delegate Delegate or delegates may refer to: * Delegate, New South Wales, a town in Australia * Delegate (CLI), a computer programming technique * Delegate (American politics), a representative in any of various political organizations * Delegate (Unit ...

who represents the district in Congress.

Puerto Rico officeholders

The posts of shadow representatives and senators for Puerto Rico were created in 2017 as part of a newly forme
Puerto Rico Equality Commission
to fulfill campaign promises made by the New Progressive Party, which gained control of both the executive and legislative branch in the 2016 elections in part with calls for a status referendum in 2017. Pro-statehood governor Ricardo Rosselló appointed five shadow representatives and two shadow senators with the

advice and consent Advice and consent is an English phrase frequently used in enacting formulae of bills and in other legal or constitutional contexts. It describes either of two situations: where a weak executive branch of a government enacts something previo ...

of the

Senate of Puerto Rico The Senate of Puerto Rico ( es, Senado de Puerto Rico) is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate, together with the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, control th ...

. Following the pro-statehood vote in the 2020 Puerto Rican status referendum, the Puerto Rican legislature passed in a lame duck sessio
Law 167 of 2020
replacing the Puerto Rico Equality Commission with the new Commission to the Congressional Delegation of Puerto Rico and establishing an electoral process for shadow delegates to Congress. Although an effort to overturn Law 167 passed the

House of Representatives of Puerto Rico The House of Representatives of Puerto Rico ( es, Cámara de Representantes de Puerto Rico) is the lower house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the bicameral state legislature (United States), territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. ...

in early 2021 after the Popular Democratic Party gained control of the legislature, it did not have enough votes to sustain a threatened veto from pro-statehood governor

Pedro Pierluisi Pedro Rafael Pierluisi Urrutia (born April 26, 1959) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer currently serving as governor of Puerto Rico. He has previously served as Secretary of Justice, Resident Commissioner, acting Secretary of State, i ...

. Popular elections for two shadow senators and four shadow members of Congress will be held on a nonpartisan basis every four years, with the first election held on May 16, 2021, so the delegates can take office on July 1. The law also appropriated funds for the

Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration The Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA)— es, Administración de Asuntos Federales de Puerto Rico—is the executive agency of the government of Puerto Rico that represents the government of the island and its dependencies ...

to cover the wages of the delegates and serve as their headquarters in Washington, D.C., where they will work on the statehood process with the island's

resident commissioner Resident commissioner was or is an official title of several different types of commissioners, who were or are representatives of any level of government. Historically, they were appointed by the British Crown in overseas protectorates (such ...

in Congress.

Puerto Rico shadow senators

, - style="height:2em" ! rowspan=4 , 1 , rowspan=4 align=left , Zoraida Fonalledas , rowspan=4 , New Progressive/

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, rowspan=4 nowrap width=14% , Aug 15, 2017 –
Jul 1, 2021 , rowspan=4 width=14% , Appointed in 2017.
Successor elected. , rowspan=4 , 1 , , rowspan=5 , 1 , rowspan=3 width=14% , Appointed in 2017.
Died. , rowspan=3 nowrap width=14% , Aug 15, 2017 –
May 2, 2021 , rowspan=3 , New Progressive/
Democratic , rowspan=3 align=right , Carlos Romero Barcelo (cropped)

Carlos Romero Barceló Carlos Antonio Romero Barceló (September 4, 1932 – May 2, 2021) was a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1977 to 1985. He was the second governor to be elected from the New Progressive Party (PNP). He al ...

! rowspan=3 , 1 , - style="height:2em" , , - style="height:2em" , , - style="height:2em" , rowspan=2 , — , rowspan=2 nowrap width=14% , May 2, 2021 –
Jul 1, 2021 , rowspan=2 colspan=4 , ''Vacant'' , - style="height:2em" ! rowspan=3 , 2 , rowspan=3 align=left ,

Melinda Romero Donnelly Melinda Kathleen Romero Donnelly (born October 8, 1971) is a Puerto Rican politician, and former senator and Representative for the New Progressive Party (PNP). She is the youngest daughter of former Governor of Puerto Rico Carlos Romero Barcel ...

, rowspan=3 , New Progressive/
Democratic , rowspan=3 , July 1, 2021 – present , rowspan=3 , Elected in 2021. , rowspan=3 , 2 , - style="height:2em" , rowspan=2 , 2 , rowspan=2 , Elected in 2021. , rowspan=2 nowrap width=14% , Jul 1, 2021 – present , rowspan=2 ,

, rowspan=2 align=right ,

Zoraida Buxó Zoraida Buxó Santiago (born 1963) is a Puerto Rican politician currently serving as a Shadow United States Senator. Early life and education Buxó was born in Puerto Rico in 1963. Completed a BA in Business Administration from the University ...

! rowspan=2 , 2 , - style="height:2em" ,

Puerto Rico shadow representatives

References

External links

A Brief History of the Shadow Senators of the United StatesOfficial Site of District of ColumbiaShadow Congressional Representatives contact informationPuerto Rico Equality CommissionPuerto Rico Federal Affair Administration
{{Puerto Rico topics Home rule and voting rights of the District of Columbia Politics of Puerto Rico Legislative branch of the United States government