U.S. 10-year demographic data: Northeast and California lose congressional seats, Florida gains seats in anticipation of court fight

The Daily Mail reported April 26 that the total population of the United States on April 1, 2020 will be 331,449,281, according to the decennial census released Monday afternoon by the Census Bureau.

Experts have long predicted a shift in congressional seats from the Midwest and Northeast to the South and West, due to rapid economic growth in states such as Texas, Florida and Colorado, and instead stagnant economic growth in states such as New York and Ohio, and the census results confirm that this trend has continued. A redistribution of congressional representation has followed, with all states vying for 435 House seats.

Seven states, California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, will each lose one congressional district, and six states, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon, will add at least one congressional district each, with Texas adding at least two new members to the House of Representatives.

The Census Bureau said the Constitution requires the census to be taken once every 10 years, and the results will be used to reallocate each state’s seats in the federal House of Representatives and federal appropriations. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Dec. 18, 2020, that the federal government can exclude illegal immigrants from the 2020 census count and divide the congressional seats and electoral votes held by each state based on the legal U.S. population.

In most states, congressional district maps are determined by the state legislature and approved by the governor. The Daily Mail said Republicans have an advantage in governors and legislatures, with 27 Republican governors in the 50 U.S. states and 61 of the 98 state legislatures held by Republicans, so it said the GOP was able to gain an advantage in redistricting.

However, Biden issued an executive order on Jan. 20 requiring the Census Bureau to, among other things, include illegal immigrants in the baseline data for assigning congressional seats. Democrats, who face defending a narrow congressional House majority in the 2022 midterm elections, are likely to challenge the calculation of the number of state House members accordingly, with a court battle looming.