Rhode Island Will Retain Two Congressional Seats

Rhode Island Will Retain Two Congressional Seats

The early Census data is out and Rhode Island will retain both congressional seats presently held by Democrats David Cicilline and James Langevin.

The pronouncement avoids a potential head-to-head battle between the two members of Congress.

"As Rhode Island continues to bounce back from a once-in-a-generation pandemic, it’s all hands on deck to make sure that our recovery remains strong and on track. Today is a good day for Rhode Island, and I look forward to working shoulder-to-shoulder with Rep. Cicilline to crush this virus and get Rhode Islanders back to work,” said Langevin in a statement.

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According to the Wall Street the data released by the Census Bureau shows that a number of Congressional seats will move to the South and Mountain West.

“Thirteen states will gain or lose seats in the House of Representatives in next year’s elections through the once-a-decade reapportionment required by the Constitution. Texas will gain two seats in the House. Five states will gain one each: Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon. Seven states will lose one each: California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia,” reported the Wall Street Journal.

The population of Rhode Island has been functionally stagnant for decades.

Rhode Island’s population in 2000 was 1.05 million and in 2020 is 1.057 — virtually no growth.

In contrast, Arizona's population grew from 5.160 million to 7.421 over the same 20 year period

Politico reports that, “The months-late release of the apportionment and redistricting data — pre-pandemic, all of it was expected to come out by the end of March 2021 — has wrought havoc on individual states’ mapmaking processes. Many states have constitutional or statutory deadlines that are incompatible with the new release schedule. States have considered options from going to the courts to push back their redistricting deadlines to even using data sources other than the decennial census count to draw their map lines. The Census Bureau has said it will release redistricting data “by” Sept. 30, although it could be available as soon as mid-August in a less user-friendly format."