Call 2022 the Year of Redistricting.
Nationwide, political maps redrawn based on 2020 census data are being put to the test. On Tuesday, Texas held the year’s first primary election, transformed by these new district lines.
If you aren’t familiar with the redistricting process, here’s a refresher before I dive into how this affects California:
Every 10 years, states use the latest census data to draw the political districts used to elect members of Congress and state legislators. The goal is to adjust the maps based on population shifts, so that the number of people in each district stays the same.
In California, a 14-person independent commission in charge of drawing the maps finalized them in December. The changes take effect with the state’s June 2022 primary.
The new boundaries have scrambled the fates of many California politicians and shifted hundreds of thousands of voters into new districts.
Under the census, California lost a House seat for the first time, because of slowed population growth. The maps show that the loss in congressional representation was achieved by effectively eliminating a seat in the Los Angeles region.
The new districts give Latinos far more voting power in California than they had before, bringing the share of Latino-majority districts to 30%. That could help Democrats defend their slim majority in the U.S. House in the 2022 midterms, but not necessarily.
As for more local politics, the redrawn lines appear to have prompted an unusually high number of state legislators to decide to retire or seek other jobs. Some politicians are now in districts they are less likely to win, or they would have to run against people from their own party to retain their positions.
There are countless ramifications here, and they’ll most likely play out for years. The new maps will be in place, shaping the state’s political landscape, for the next decade.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Copyright 2022 The New York Times Company
