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Since the first census of the United States in 1790, counts that include both citizens and noncitizens have been used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives, with states gaining or losing based on population change over the previous decade. If unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. were removed from the 2020 census apportionment count – which the White House seeks to do – three states could each lose a seat they otherwise would have had and three others each could gain one, according to a Pew Research Center analysis based on government records. If unauthorized immigrants were excluded from...

States that consistently grew faster than the national average over the past ten years are in line to gain representation in Congress. Democrats will work to undermine people's vote with their feet.The U.S. Census Bureau released its once-in-a-decade national census on April 26. Most of the discussion about the census has focused on states losing or gaining seats in the U.S. House, a process known as reapportionment.For the 2022 midterms, seven states will be down one member of the House: California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon each gained one...

For most Americans, the census is something none of us really think about, for good reason. It doesn’t come around but once every ten years, and then it’s gone again. Besides a few stories on the changing demographics of the country, and possible changes in the number of representatives any given state is allotted, the census is usually in the back of many people’s minds. That, however, changed with the arrival of the Trump administration. Seemingly out of nowhere it was announced the 2020 Census would be modified in a simultaneously subtle and monumental fashion. Wilbur Ross, the Secretary of...

Below are Fair Lines America’s updated 2018 estimates for reapportionment following the 2020 Census. The 2020 reapportionment will allocate congressional representation (and Electoral College votes) for the 50 states from 2022 through 2030. The 2020 Forecast The Upper Midwest and Northeast are expected to see continued migration of representation to the South and West. Texas looks to gain its 6th, 7th, and 8th new members this century as Florida picks up its 5th and 6th. Four western states (Arizona, Colorado, Montana, and Oregon) would expand their delegations while North Carolina may gain the 14th seat it just missed in 2010....

R.I. (WPRI) – Rhode Island is now just 157 residents away from losing one of its two seats in the U.S. House, which would give the state a single vote there for the first time since George Washington was president, according to an analysis of newly released population data. Kimball Brace, the reapportionment expert who has been involved in drawing legislative and congressional districts in Rhode Island since the early 1980s, ran the numbers Wednesday after the U.S. Census Bureau announced Rhode Island had added about 2,000 residents between July 2016 and July 2017.

The Northeast, once the nation’s political engine that produced presidents, House speakers and Senate giants including the late Edward M. Kennedy, is losing clout in Washington as citizens flee the high-tax region, according to experts worried about the trend. The Census Bureau reports that population growth has shifted to the South and the result is that the 11 states that make up the Northeast are being bled dry of representation in Washington. Critics blame rising taxes in states such as Massachusetts and Connecticut for limiting population growth in the Northeast to just 15 percent from 1983 to 2013, while the...

The 2010 redistricting season is beginning to wrap up, with only a dozen or so states still waiting to announce their new lines. And soon we'll have our first race under the revised congressional apportionment. Yet for those of us who follow congressional races closely, the Census Bureau granted us an early Christmas present when it released 2011 estimates for population in each state. Using these numbers, we can extrapolate changes in population from the 2010 numbers, and estimate what the population of each state would look like in 2020 if the trends hold true. This then enables us to...

shington, DC, United States (AHN) – The state of Louisiana petitioned the Supreme Court this week for a ruling that would halt the U.S. Census Bureau from counting illegal immigrants as residents of the United States. Louisiana is trying to regain the congressional seat it lost after the 2010 census showed a population shift toward states with the largest numbers of illegal immigrants, such as California and Texas. States are assigned seats in the U.S. House of Representatives based on their populations. The Louisiana lawsuit appears to demonstrate the extent that illegal immigration is distorting U.S. population figures to the...

Six months ago, before redistricting had even begun, Republicans were optimistic they would gain additional seats, or, as former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie put it, that they would “gain or protect” 15 to 25 seats. Not surprisingly, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (N.Y.) disagreed, arguing the process wouldn’t be the “disaster” for his party that some thought it would be (though he never said exactly who had predicted that). In January, I estimated in this space that redistricting would be close to a wash, with neither party making major gains, but with Republicans solidifying many of...

Our editorial today (wide application to other states): It was a corrupt system that allowed back-room politicking to redraw every 10 years California's boundaries for congressional, legislative and other districts. Legislators redrew lines to ensure reelection and protect their political parties. There is word for it: Gerrymandering. . . . Unfortunately, Californians apparently have traded one form of special-interest pandering for another.

A leading Hispanic voting-rights group has filed a redistricting plan for Texas that would create nine Hispanic-majority congressional districts in the state’s new 36-seat map. And since each district would give Democratic candidates a decided advantage, the result would most likely increase the number of House Democrats from Texas to 12 — up from 9. The ambitious proposal would be a dramatic departure from the makeup of the current 32-seat delegation, which has seven Hispanic-majority seats but only four Hispanic Democrats. Texas is adding four seats due to reapportionment. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52888.html#ixzz1JEdYaVQ5

California Reapportionment A call to arms, CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS! Are you interested in California Reapportionment? You’d better be. The latest issue of The American Spectator has an article by Grover Norquist on page 52 titled “The Battle Moves to the States.” Near the end of his piece, Norquist comments: Perhaps the most important task for state-level Republicans will be redistricting.In California, reapportionment is being done by a committee consisting of five state senators, three liberal Democrats, and two apparently conservative Republicans. California has 53 Congressional Districts. The Democrats could, feasibly, put 20 districts in Los Angeles, 10 in San Francisco, 3...

The U.S. Census Bureau today announced its long-awaited final population and reapportionment numbers. The official population of the U.S. as of April 1, 2010 was 308,745,538, up from 281,421,906 in 2000. The Northeast grew 3.2 percent, the Midwest grew 3.9 percent, the South grew 14.3 percent and the West grew by 13.8 percent. Overall, it was the slowest growth in the country since the 1930s. The apportionment winners were: Texas (4 seats), Florida (2 seats), Arizona (1 seat), Georgia (1 seat), Nevada (1 seat), South Carolina (1 seat), Utah (1 seat), Washington (1 seat). The losers were: New York (2...

The new Congressional reapportionment numbers are out. States gaining Congressional seats: Arizona (1), Florida (2), Georgia (1), Nevada (1), South Carolina (1), Texas (4), Utah (1), Washington (1). States losing Congressional seats: Illinois (1), Iowa (1), Louisiana (1), Massachusetts (1), Michigan (1), Missouri (1), New Jersey (1), New York (2), Ohio (2), Pennsylvania (1). You’ll notice John McCain won six of the eight states gaining seats. You’ll notice Barack Obama won eight of the ten states losing seats.

Rep.-elect Tim Scott hasn't even taken office, yet the North Charleston Republican knows that he's already a marked man. It's not his political foes who are targeting him. Scott, with Allen West of Florida the first two black Republicans elected to the U.S. House of Representatives since Reconstruction, stands in the path of a demographic tidal wave that likely will engulf him in the coming months. Thanks to rapid population growth in four counties in his 1st Congressional District — Dorchester, Horry, Berkeley and Charleston — an expected new U.S. House seat for South Carolina as a result of the...

House Editor David Wasserman kicks off the Cook Political Report’s in-depth coverage of Redistricting 2012, which you can also follow via Twitter handle @Redistrict as the remap gets underway. Over the next year, we will be using population estimates from Election Data Services, political data from Polidata’s Clark Bensen, and a new interactive mapping tool (Dave Bradlee’s Redistricting App) to make sense of the madness. But before redistricting can begin, there must be reapportionment. On Tuesday, the Census Bureau will fulfill its constitutional mandate and release its highly anticipated official state population totals and the resulting allotment of House seats...

Expanding the House is an idea whose time has come. Using a slightly different formula for apportioning Congressional seats would give us a House that is much more in line with American values. So much of what the federal government does is based on merely what the federal government wants to do rather than what the Founding Fathers designed. This makes it hard to separate original intent from political whim. For instance, we take for granted that United States Senators must be elected. Yet before the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1913 states were free to elect or select...

Migration from high-tax states to states with lower taxes and less government spending will dramatically alter the composition of future Congresses, according to a study by Americans for Tax Reform Eight states are projected to gain at least one congressional seat under reapportionment following the 2010 Census: Texas (four seats), Florida (two seats), Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington (one seat each). Their average top state personal income tax rate: 2.8 percent. By contrast, New York and Ohio are likely to lose two seats each, while Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will be...

With the Census Bureau's release today of its annual population estimates for the 50 states, the final projections of next year's decennial census reveal further details of the likely winners and losers. Here are some highlights based on the analysis by Polidata, a demographic and political research firm. • Of the 11 House seats that would switch among the states as a result of the projections, Texas would gain four. The remaining seats would be distributed one each to seven states -- four in the West (Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Washington) and three in the South (Florida, Georgia and...

The Hoover law took effect automatically after the 1930 Census, effective for the Congress elected in 1932. This resulted in big increases in House members for states with large numbers of immigrants in 1910-30, like New York and Illinois, and decreases for interior states with low population growth, like Missouri and Iowa. In several states that lost House members the legislatures could not agree on redistricting plans, and all members therefrom were elected statewide at-large. But the increases in immigrant-heavy states and the at-large elections in interior states augmented what would have been even without these factors huge Democratic gains....