(WTRF) – West Virginia is one of the states that will be losing a seat in Congress, thanks to the recent U.S. Census results.
7News spoke to a political science professor who said this is one of the many compelling reasons why every person in the country should fill out their Census form. Many things, including seats in Congress, are based on population.
West Virginia has three Congressional representatives; David McKinley (R, 1st District), Alex Mooney (R, 2nd District) and Carol Miller (R, 3rd District).
Now, the state will be re-drawn into two districts and it’s unknown how the lines will be drawn and who will be left out.
We’ll just have to wait until August for some additional data to come out. These are the actual data that they will use for the redistricting process. In West Virginia that’s done through the legislature. As far as our current house members, two will be forced to run against one another or one will be forced to find another job.
– BRIAN FITZPATRICK, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, WEST LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
The main requirement for re-drawing a district is that they must have equal populations.
Fitzpatrick said West Virginia originally had six house seats, but that’s been shrinking since 1960. He explained population loss is often due to people leaving the state and people choosing to have fewer children.