The magazine of the North Carolina Center for Voter Education • Saturday May 19, 2012

Census: No U.S. House Gain for N.C.

By Bryan Warner
Published: Dec. 21, 2010

RALEIGH - North Carolina will neither gain nor lose a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, based on 2010 census data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

While North Carolina’s congressional allotment will remain at 13, two of the state’s bordering neighbors -- South Carolina and Georgia -- will each gain one congressional seat.

Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Washington will also add a seat each.  Florida will pick up two and Texas will gain four.

Among those states losing one U.S. House seat each are Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  New York and Ohio will lose two seats respectively.

The U.S. Constitution mandates that U.S. House seats be allotted to states based on population data collected through a census conducted once a decade, with each state given at least one representative. Congress capped the numbers of representatives at 435 in 1913.

Shifts in the U.S. House apportionment could impact not only power in Congress, but also the 2012 presidential contest, since each state’s electoral votes are the sum of their respective U.S. House and U.S. Senate seats.

Among the eight states slated to gain at least one congressional seat, three were carried by Democratic nominee Barack Obama in 2008, while the other five were won by Republican John McCain.  Of the 10 states losing seats, Obama carried eight.  The net gain for states carried by McCain in 2008 is plus six, while states won by Obama face a net loss of six seats.

Although North Carolina’s U.S. House allotment will remain static, population shifts within the state could play a significant role in the upcoming redistricting process, when the N.C. General Assembly will redraw congressional and legislative districts based on the 2010 census data.  The redistricting process will be led by the newly elected Republican majority, which won control of both legislative chambers for the first time in a century.

Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue has called for the creation of an independent redistricting commission to “do away with the divisive partisan politics that have plagued North Carolina’s redistricting efforts in the past and that have ended up in court time, after time, after time.”

Incoming Republican legislative leaders have so far rebuffed Perdue’s proposal for an independent commission. They say there is no time to create such a commission before the task of redistricting is taken up during the 2011 session, set to begin on Jan. 26.  Instead, Republican leaders say they will study the feasibility of launching such a commission in time for the 2021 redistricting process.

In the wake of the 2010 elections -- and as redistricting fast approaches -- Republicans have outright control of 25 state legislatures, compared to the 16 controlled by Democrats. Eight states have split chambers between the GOP and Democrats, while Nebraska’s legislative body is nonpartisan.