You know we’ll never create a new state. The UP has been trying for years. 57 states is a good round number. You’re proposal is interesting. IL and WI are solid conservative states, we’re battling the cities.
The UP has a tiny population (like 300,000), so it could never become a state.
Here’s what I wrote a few years ago about how DC residents should be given the benefits of statehood, but only if they form a state that includes DC and its Democrat suburbs in MD and VA: http://auh2orepublican.blogspot.com/2005/08/fair-and-reasonable-alternative-to-dc.html