Last year was the Constitutionally mandated census of the United States (Article 1 Section 2) “…Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers…”
…which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.
The Daily Wire reports:
…“The first numbers to come out of the 2020 Census show the U.S. population on April 1, 2020 — Census Day — was 331.5 million people, an increase of just 7.4 percent between 2010 and 2020. It is the second most sluggish rate of expansion since the government began taking a census in 1790. In the 1930s, the slowest-growth decade, the rate was 7.3 percent,” The Washington Post noted.
The Census also showed the States that have lost Congressional Districts (mostly Democrats) and who gained from it (mostly Republican) States.
Losing one US Representative each:
- California
- New York
- Illinois
- Michigan, Ohio
- W.Virginia
- Pennsylvania.
Gaining one US Representative each:
- N. Carolina
- Montana
- Florida
- Colorado
- Oregon
Gaining TWO US Representatives:
- Texas
Map:
(click to embiggen; H/T: Politico)
This is why the Democrats put such an emphasis in the States this last election – the Majority Party in each state gets to determine each Congressional District’s layout and, of course, their State’s districts as well (State Senate, House, Assembly, et al).
I can tell you that all of the Democrat email lists went dead for a couple of weeks after the elections when they realized that they lost ground in most States. Yet, the yammering and machinations have started up again under the rubrics of Fair Maps, Fair Districts, and the like.
Make no mistake – NH WAS a targeted State by former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder’s groups. Remember, he was about as partisan and committed Leftist in that position that I can remember. It is CLEAR that “Fair” to them could easily be translated as “We own the districts.”
For all the effort they put in, and the kvetching they did about gerrymandered districts, you could be certain that mapmakers would be busy redoing things all over to ensure that more and more districts would be favorable to Democrat candidates and officeholders. Sure, they’re already doing the faux outrage about what they want the public to think about what the Republicans MIGHT do but those of us that follow politics KNOW what the Democrats would be doing if the Majority table had been flipped.
So, what will this mean at the national level? Colorado and Oregon are Democrat States but Texas, Florida, Montana are reasonably Republican with N. Carolina a tossup: 2 vs 4 with 1 question mark. IF those had been that way this past election, the GOP might have taken the House. Maybe.
Will they in 2022? Unsure. What will the Democrat majority States of California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, and Illinois do? Certainly, they will put the squeeze on any Republican-held districts to gerrymander those Rs out of existence. Or at least try. So will it be a wash?
