Texas could gain 3 congressional seats after 2020 census

AUSTIN – Texas could gain three seats in Congress after adding more than 4-million people over the last 10 years, according to testimony offered before the Senate Special Committee on Redistricting Monday.  

Delays in federal data collection and reporting and the COVID-19 pandemic will complicate and delay the process of drawing new congressional and state legislative districts. Estimates offered by state demographer Dr. Lloyd Potter indicate a larger, more diverse state population than in 2010.

Typically conducted across the state during the interim, regional hearings were postponed due to COVID-19 concerns and will be held in Austin with all witnesses appearing virtually.  Committee Chair Joan Huffman assured Texans this would allow their voices to be heard. 

“Though the pandemic prevented us from traveling the state to hold in-person regional hearings, we still intend to hear from Texans in all parts of the state about your local communities and what you believe we should take into consideration during redistricting,” she said.  

Huffman said this is the first time a legislative committee has been conducted in this manner, and she thanked her colleagues for unanimous support of rules changes facilitating remote redistricting hearings.

COVID-19 greatly complicated the census effort this year, limiting contact efforts and introducing significant reporting delays.  

Raw state population counts, which determine representation in Congress, will not be distributed by Washington before March. 

There is no timeline for the delivery of more granular data used to draw lines for statehouse and congressional districts, but Potter said it likely will not be before the summer and may not arrive prior to the fall.     

Despite the pandemic, Potter said the Census Bureau reports counting 99-percent of households in Texas.  

A lower percentage than normal – only 62-percent were self-reported, with a member of the household answering data either through survey or through contact with a census worker, down 2.5 percent from 2010.   

The rest were counted via the non-response follow-up procedure, where neighbors, landlords or other knowledgeable individuals try and estimate the number, age, and ethnicity of the non-response households. 

Of the state’s 254 counties, only 29 counties beat their self-response rate from 2010.