Saturday, November 4, 2017

Kentucky may lose an electoral vote in next census

Happy now, Forehead?

There's some very real speculation now that Kentucky may lose a U.S. House seat - and an electoral vote - in the 2020 census. After the rise of Matt Bevin, population growth in the Bluegrass State has slowed to a crawl - and lags far behind most other states. If so, Kentucky would be reduced to 5 House seats or 7 electoral votes.

And for those who think Kentucky can't lose 2 because it's a small state to begin with, Oklahoma lost 2 in 1950. At the rate things are going, this is actually a possibility.

The party that loses from this should be the Republicans. Most of the state's most Republican areas are actually losing population, so the Democrats should keep their seat around Louisville and have an easier time winning the one around Lexington. But don't bet on it, because of illegal gerrymandering. In fact, even if the Democrats retake the Kentucky legislature, they'll probably do their best to preserve Republican seats - as the 1990 debacle proved.

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