FIVE THINGS ABOUT U.S. HOUSE DISTRICTS

1 OVERALL POPULATION SHIFT

Texas, Florida and North Carolina are among the states that will gain congressional seats based on new population data from the U.S. census, a shift that could boost Republican chances of recapturing the U.S. House of Representatives from Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.

2 STAGE SET FOR RE-DISTRICTING FIGHTS

The overall U.S. population stood at 331,449,281, the Census Bureau said on Monday, a 7.4-per-cent increase over 2010 representing the second-slowest growth of any decade in history. The release of the data, delayed by the pandemic, sets the stage for a battle over re-districting that could reshape political power in Washington during the next decade.

3 ELECTORAL COLLEGE IS INCLUDED

Under the U.S. Constitution, the 435 seats in the House and the votes in the Electoral College that select the president every four years are divided among the 50 states based on population, with every state receiving at least one congressional seat. The seats are reallocated every 10 years following the decennial census count.

4 CALIFORNIA LOSES A SEAT FOR FIRST TIME

Texas will receive two more congressional seats next year, and five states — Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Montana and Oregon — will gain one congressional seat each, the census bureau said.

New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will each lose one seat. California, the most populous U.S. state, lost a congressional seat for the first time in its 170-year history.

5 AGGRESSIVE GERRYMANDERING

The gains for states such as Texas, North Carolina and Florida, where Republicans control the legislatures, could be enough to erase Democrats’ current narrow majority in the House. Republicans in those three states have in the past engaged in aggressive gerrymandering. Republicans only need to flip five seats in 2022 to retake the House.