Republicans won't be in any hurry to make Puerto Rico the 51st state

The newly elected Puerto Rican representative to Congress, a Republican, has introduced a statehood bill. It won’t pass, but this isn’t the reason why:

Some predict that the Republican-controlled Congress will not take the bill seriously because of the potential cost of admitting a financially strapped state to the Union

Ha ha ha ha! If Puerto Rico had Utah-style politics, it would be admitted in a heartbeat. The reason they won’t is because of simple politics—Puerto Rico would bolster the ranks of Democrats in Congress. Its two senators would likely be Democratic, and of its five House seats, at least a majority would end up Democratic. It’s the same reason DC isn’t becoming a state anytime soon.

Now, assuming Congress didn’t want to expand the size of the chamber (which hasn’t happened in over 100 years), those five new seats would likely come at the expense of Texas, Florida, Washington, California, and Minnesota (based on the current maps). The net partisan change might actually be zero, or it could be more or less depending on the new 2022 maps. But in any case, Republicans won’t be in any hurry to give Democrats the likely assist. 

Now, Boricua voters have never voted straight-up for statehood, and there’s no guarantee they would do so given the chances. But its elected leadership has never been more aggressively pushing statehood, and the island’s current economic woes could very well scramble local sentiment. But if such a push fails in Congress, it won’t be because of any silly notion of finances or deficits. The only question that matters is partisan control.