When the Virginia portions of D.C. were retroceded in the 1840s, why didn’t they get to be a new state? Carve out a small federal enclave around the Capitol Mall & White House and retrocede the rest of the s—thole back to Maryland.
When Arlington/Alexandria were led out of DC (1846), the region had an internal vote, and their path was to annex themselves back to Virginia (not to create a state). Virginia had a vote at the state capital and agreed to accept Arlington/Alexandria back....if Congress would approve it. They did, and the deal was done.
One odd piece of history which rarely gets mentioned here. When the District was being designed, a lot of land speculation in Arlington/Alexandria played a role in them being part of DC. Along with that, they had this mindset that commerce would greatly increase.
This was a total failure on land speculation and commerce. Georgetown area of DC ended up the bulk of commerce growth. Virginia itself....also interfered with various projects which would have meant commerce growth for Alexandria.
We have quite enough problems already, thank you