Some are understandably consumed with the court-packing issue right now. I'm much more interested in DC and Puerto Rican statehood. And specifically, the question of whether it is "rank politics" (and whether rank politics is bad).

So, let's talk about the Election of 1888! 1/24

You may remember that Grover Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms. The term he *didn't* serve is the one decided in 1888. Despite getting 90,000 more votes than his opponent, Benjamin Harrison, Cleveland lost the Electoral College. 2/24

Harrison's Republican Party, who already controlled the Senate, also took back control of the House in that election, earning unified control for the first time since 1881.

But it was a fragile control. So they immediately got to work on admitting new Republican states. 3/24

In 1889, the Republican Congress admitted four new states: Washington, Montana and the Dakota Territory, which was split at the last minute into North Dakota and South Dakota. In 1890, they added Idaho and Wyoming.

Just as importantly is the territory they *didn't* add... 4/24

Republicans opted to leave Utah as a territory, because it was widely understood that Mormons were overwhelmingly Democrats. 

Thus, Republicans expanded both of their caucuses with all 8 House members from the new states and all 12 new members in the Senate. 5/24