By Julie Tomascik
Editor
The fast-growing Texas population earned the state two additional congressional seats after the 2020 U.S. Census.
For the next decade, Texas will have 38 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“We are glad to see Texas’ political clout expand by adding two new congressional seats. Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) looks forward to building relationships with additional leaders in Congress after restricting is finalized and changes go into effect in 2022,” TFB National Legislative Director Laramie Adams said.
The additional seats also means Texas will now have 40 votes in the Electoral College.
Despite losing one seat after the census, California continues to have the largest congressional delegation and share of Electoral College votes.
Other states losing seats after the census include Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Five other states—Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon—are each gaining one seat.
The remaining states will not see changes based on the 2020 census.
Texas’ congressional delegation currently includes 22 Republicans and 13 Democrats. One seat remains vacant after the recent death of Republican Ron Wright.
The population in the Lone Star State is now at 29,145,505, which is up significantly from the 25.1 million in 2010.
And the U.S. resident population, which represents the total number of people living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, was 331,449,281. That’s an increase of 22,703,743 or 7.4% from 308,745,538 in 2010.
Congressional and state House and Senate districts need to be reconfigured before the 2022 elections to account for the state’s explosive growth in the last decade.
Most population growth continues to be in cities and suburbs, and new districts must be drawn to reflect that.
“Releasing the number of seats each state will have is the first major step in the redistricting process,” Adams said. “The 2020 census shows our U.S. and Texas population is growing. The challenge to states like Texas is making sure rural representation remains.”
The impact of the new districts on rural areas will depend on where they are added.
“The Texas State Legislature has the responsibility to redistrict the Texas Senate and House and Congressional districts. A special legislative session will likely be called to accomplish this long, complicated process. However the new districts are drawn, Texas Farm Bureau will engage and work with new Congressional leaders to show the issues that face farmers and ranchers and help them better understand agriculture,” Adams said.
The census results were initially delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Now that the apportionment counts are delivered, we will begin the additional activities needed to create and deliver the redistricting data that were previously delayed due to COVID-19,” Acting Census Bureau Director Ron Jarmin said.
Redistricting data include the local area counts states need to redraw or “redistrict” legislative boundaries.
The Census Bureau estimates states will receive redistricting data by Aug. 16.