California enacted new state legislative districts on Dec. 27, 2021, when the California Citizens Redistricting Commission delivered its final maps to the secretary of state. The commission voted 14-0 in favor of the maps on Dec. 20, 2021. The maps will take effect for California’s 2022 state legislative elections.
Following the 2020 elections, Democrats held supermajorities in both legislative chambers. In the state Assembly, the party held 60 of the 80 seats with Republicans holding 19 and an independent holding one. In the state Senate, Democrats held 31 of the 40 seats with Republicans holding the remaining nine.
CalMatters’ Sameea Kamal wrote, “Democrats’ grip of the Assembly could tighten” under the new maps with 63 districts having a Democratic lean. Kamal added “the Democratic majority in the state Senate might shrink,” with three districts becoming more Republican and one becoming more Democratic in terms of voter registration.
The Associated Press’ Don Thompson wrote that the new maps created 22 Assembly districts and 11 Senate districts with a Latino citizen voting age population greater than 50%, an increase of six and four such districts compared to previous maps, respectively.
As of Jan. 3, 27 states have adopted new state legislative maps for both chambers, one state adopted a map for one chamber, one state has adopted maps that have not yet gone into effect, and 21 states have not yet adopted state legislative maps. As of Jan. 3, 2012, 32 states had enacted legislative redistricting plans after the 2010 census.
Nationwide, states have completed legislative redistricting for 1,078 of 1,972 state Senate seats (54.7%) and 2,776 of 5,411 state House seats (51.3%).
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