Courtesy/US Census Bureau

STATE News:

ALBUQUERQUE — Monday, the U.S. Census Bureau released apportionment data, including state population totals that are the basis for allocating seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the number of seats awarded to each state for the next decade, starting in 2023.

The 2020 Census shows the resident population of the United States April 1, 2020, was 331,449,281.

According to the data released, the following congressional seat changes will occur:

• Texas will gain two seats in the House of Representatives;
• Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon will each gain one seat;
• California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will each lose one seat; and
• The remaining states’ number of seats, including New Mexico, will not change based on the 2020 Census. 

The following is a statement by Oriana Sandoval, CEOP of the Center for Civic Policy, co-lead of the NM Community Engagement Complete Count Committee, and member of NM’s Complete Count Committee:

“Despite the enormous challenges New Mexico and the rest of the country faced in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, I want to extend my most sincere gratitude and appreciation for all of the countless volunteers, community leaders, community organizers, and trusted community organizations that put in an incredible amount of work to ensure New Mexicans were counted during an unprecedented Census count.

“Over the course of 6 months, we made hundreds of thousands of calls, texted tens of thousands of people, and mail thousands of households across the state to ensure they were counted in the decennial count. Today we see the fruit of our hard work by keeping our three congressional seats to represent every family in our nation’s capital.

“But our work is not done yet. As the Census data is approved by Congress, it is paramount we work at the local level to ensure political maps are drawn fairly and equitably, to guarantee representation of each resident of our state.”

Redistricting data include the local area counts states need to redraw legislative boundaries. Due to modifications to processing activities, COVID-19 data collections delays, and the Census Bureau’s obligation to provide high-quality data, states are expected to receive redistricting data by Aug. 16, and the full redistricting data with toolkits for ease of use will be delivered by Sept. 30.