Ahead: Redrawing MS districts

JACKSON, Miss. - States are set to get detailed Census population information in September, and Mississippi legislators will use the numbers on how to redraw the four U.S. House districts and 174 state legislative districts. Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature. Three of the state’s U.S. House districts are majority-white. One is majority-Black. The boundaries of the majority-Black 2nd District will need to expand it population numbers because people have been moving out over the last 10 years. But Republicans have an interest in keeping at least one majority-Black congressional district. The Black population of Mississippi is 38 percent. Obliterating the majority-Black district would increase the Black population in majority-white districts, and give Democrats more influence. Congressional districts are supposed to be as equal as possible in population, but over the last 10 years, the districts are out of balance. 2019 Census data estimated the state’s population to be 2,976,149. Divide that by four, and the ideal district would include about 744,037. Two current districts are over that number; and two are under. The 4th District in the south had an estimated population of 775,679. The north’s 1st District had an estimated 769,026. The 2nd District, on the western side of the state, through the Delta and into Jackson, had the smallest estimated population in 2019 at 692,452. The 3rd District runs diagonally from the southwestern corner of the state, up through the Jackson suburbs and to Starkville. It was closest to the ideal average with 738,992. The Census Bureau released its 2020 numbers in April. The numbers showed Mississippi, West Virginia, and Illinois were the only states to lose population during the last 10 years. Mississippi will keep four U.S. House seats. Mississippi’s 2020 population was 2,963,914. That makes the ideal population for each district to be 740,949. Redrawing the district lines could be contentious, but redrawing lines for the 122 state House districts and the 52 state Senate districts could be worse. (Source: The AP 05/09/21) Analysis: Census will reshape political maps in Mississippi - The Dispatch (cdispatch.com)