New York will lose one congressional seat before the midterm elections next year, and upstate districts are most in jeopardy, based on U.S. Census Bureau numbers released Monday.
Four regions of New York gained population — New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley and the Capital region — while all other regions lost residents in the last decade.
Republican politicians pounced on the news.
“For New Yorkers, this news confirms what we’ve witnessed firsthand – under Andrew Cuomo’s failed leadership, our best and brightest are packing up their lives and heading for greener pastures,” said Lee Zeldin, the congressman from Suffolk County who is preparing a challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2022.
“What else would you expect with Albany’s constant attacks on our wallets, our freedoms and our safety? Cuomo has driven a state that was once the beacon of opportunity into the ground, and New York cannot survive 16 years of his reign.”
Sen. Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, a long-time critic of the governor, said the numbers are a “wake-up call.”
“The news today by the U.S. Census Bureau that New York state will lose another congressional seat in the next redistricting is an indictment that the Empire State is fast becoming the ‘Empty State’ with further population loss,” Tedisco said.
“The millions who have fled our state and those who are now contemplating their exodus to a more taxpayer-friendly state have one thing in common: No one wants to be the last one left to pay for our state’s overzealous taxes, regulations, mandates and laws. Sadly, the short-term and long-term effects of this year’s state budget will just send more taxpaying residents and businesses heading for the doors.
“This news should be a wake-up call to the need for fiscal sobriety in Albany,” Tedisco added. “We need to examine and then change our state’s agenda to stop the escape from New York and turn our economy around or we will continue to hemorrhage residents and lose clout.”
According to the New York Public Interest Research Group, which used data from the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center, The Southern Tier had the largest outmigration losing 21,252 people since the 2010 Census. Western New York lost 17,197 residents while Central New York and the Mohawk Valley regions each lost about 14,000 people. The North Country and the Finger Lakes also posted losses of about 12,000 residents each.
The coming redistricting process will affect congressional districts, as well as state Assembly and Senate districts, and even local political maps.
In accordance with Title 2 of the U.S. Code, a congressionally defined formula is applied to the apportionment population to distribute the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the states.
The apportionment population consists of the resident population of the 50 states, plus the overseas military and federal civilian employees and their dependents living with them overseas who could be allocated to a home state.
The populations of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are excluded from the apportionment population because they do not have voting seats in Congress. The counts of overseas federal employees (and their dependents) are used for apportionment purposes only.
After the 1790 Census, each member of the House represented about 34,000 residents.
Since then, the House has more than quadrupled in size (from 105 to 435 seats), and each member will represent an average of 761,169 people based on the 2020 Census.
Texas will gain two seats in the House of Representatives.
Five states will gain one seat each — Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon.
Seven states will lose one seat each — California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
The remaining states’ number of seats will not change based on the 2020 Census.
The U.S. resident population represents the total number of people living in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The resident population increased by 22,703,743 or 7.4% from 308,745,538 in 2010.
The most populous state was California, with 39,538,223; the least populous was Wyoming, with 576,851.
The state that gained the most numerically since the 2010 Census was Texas, up 3,999,944 to 29,145,505.
The fastest-growing state since the 2010 Census was Utah, up 18.4 percent to 3,271,616.
Puerto Rico’s resident population was 3,285,874, down 11.8 percentt from 3,725,789 in the 2010 Census.
Upon receipt of the apportionment counts, the president will transmit them to the 117th Congress. The reapportioned Congress will be the 118th, which convenes in January 2023.
