TEXAS REDISTRICTING - In the United States, Districts for every state Legislature and Congress are updated every ten years following the U.S. Census count which is currently underway. Texas population has been booming over the last decade and stands to gain at least three new congressional seats. But some areas of the Lone Star State are losing population. This past week Texas lawmakers met in Austin to get input on how to redraw the state’s political maps. State Demographer Lloyd Potter explained to the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting of the need to draw larger political districts in areas experiencing population loss.
"96 of our 254 counties have lost population this decade," explained Potter. "And so that as we hearing earlier from the legislative council is going to be a challenge in having to draw geographically large districts because there are counties that are losing population."
Potter also says Texas has added more population than any other state in the past decade and that population change in Texas is largely being driven by Latinos.
Potter explained "If you take all the minority groups together then we're looking at over 86 percent of our population change is from growth of the minority population in the state."
Texas is expected to receive the upcoming census data by April of 2021 -- several months into that year's legislative session.
