Minnesota enacted new congressional district boundaries on Feb. 15 when a special judicial redistricting panel issued an order adopting final maps. Minnesota was apportioned eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2020 census, the same number it received after the 2010 census. This map will take effect for Minnesota’s 2022 congressional elections.
In its unanimous order, the panel wrote, “To afford counties and municipalities time to complete local redistricting, the statutory deadline for completing congressional and legislative redistricting is ’25 weeks before the state primary election in the year ending in two.’ In this decennium, that date is Feb. 15, 2022. That date has arrived, and the legislature has not yet enacted a congressional redistricting plan. To avoid delaying the electoral process, the panel must now act.”
After the panel issued their order, Dave Orrick of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press wrote, “The impacts of the new maps weren’t immediately clear…Since Minnesota averted losing a congressional seat, the state’s eight districts for U.S. House members don’t appear jarringly different from current maps.”
After the 2010 census, then-Gov. Mark Dayton (D) vetoed a congressional district plan that the Republican-controlled legislature had adopted, and the Minnesota Supreme Court appointed a judicial panel to draw the lines. That panel issued its map on Feb. 21, 2012.
As of Feb. 15, 33 states have adopted congressional district maps, and one state has approved congressional district boundaries that have not yet taken effect. Federal or state courts have blocked previously adopted maps in two states, and eight states have not yet adopted congressional redistricting plans after the 2020 census. Six states were apportioned one U.S. House district, so no congressional redistricting is required.
Congressional redistricting has been completed for 328 of the 435 seats (75.4%) in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Additional reading: