Upvote:4
If you don't leave the United States, you do not need a passport - remember that most Americans have no passport at all.
You do need a 'Secure Government Issued ID'. That could be - aside from a biometric passport from any country:
From what you wrote, I think if you don't have a Driver's License of your state, you might be out of luck. A photocopy would be worthless, because there is no possibility to check it for authenticity - it is easy to change something and photocopy it again.