Facebook Twitter Tumblr Close Skip to main content
A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Santorum: English Before Statehood

Santorum: English Before Statehood

Rick Santorum greatly overreached when he claimed that Congress required “English be the principal language and that it be taught and spoken universally” in several Southwest territories, Oklahoma and Hawaii as preconditions for them attaining statehood.
Congress did require in some cases that new states conduct government business in English, or that public schools teach in English. But those were the limits of the requirements. There were no requirements that English be the “principal language” or that it be “spoken universally.”

Puerto Rico and the General Election

Q: Why does Puerto Rico participate in the presidential primary and not the general election?
A: The United States Constitution grants voting privileges in the general election to the states and the District of Columbia only, not to U.S. territories.