Yeah, isn't that why Alaska and Hawaii became states at the same time? Alaska is a Republican state and Hawaii is a Democratic state, so they wouldn't change the balance of the Senate or electoral college. Meanwhile the two territories that most commonly are vying for statehood are DC and Puerto Rico, both of which would be Democratic States, meaning that the Senate (which was split 50-50 last year and split 51-49 this year) would get 4 new Democrats. Republicans would never allow that, unless we could somehow add two new Republican states. So, um. Maybe the compromise is that Puerto Rico and DC get statehood if we also create East Dakota and West Dakota to keep the balance of the Senate.