patrick.net

WASHINGTON - Political power in the United States will continue to shift south this decade as historically Democratic states that border the Great Lakes give up congressional seats and electoral votes to regions where Republicans have a political advantage, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Florida, Texas and North Carolina, three states that voted twice for Donald Trump, are set to gain a combined four additional seats in Congress in 2023 because of population growth, granting them collectively as many new votes in the electoral college for the next presidential election as the Democratic-leaning Hawaii has in total.

At the same time, four Northern states with Democratic governors that Joe Biden won in 2020 - Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania - will each lose a single congressional seat. Ohio, a nearby Republican-leaning state, will also lose a seat in Congress.