GOP Census gains may prove to be a loss

The Census Bureau has released numbers from the 2020 count — remember that one? — and Axios is leading the pack with numbers.

Numbers, and the interpretation.

Axios headlines that five states that voted for Joe Biden — New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, and California — had slow population growth and lost one representative each in the U.S. House.  

Conversely, the biggest gain — two seats — went to Texas, which voted for Donald J. Trump. Florida, North Carolina, and Montana went for Trump and each gained one seat.

Colorado and Oregon voted for Biden and gained one seat each.

While Pennsylvania has been leaking population like oil from a 2012 Buick Skylark, this is the first time California, the Golden State, has a seat. There is enough in that one stat to launch 1,000 columns.

So the Trumpsters apparently have plenty to cheer about, with gains in their states.

Axios reported “Democrats narrowly control Congress, but Republicans have unified control of the congressional redistricting process in 18 states as opposed to 7 for the Democrats.” Sounds good for the GOP. 

Here’s the problem with the Census numbers: The new Red state arrivals, many fleeing high taxes in Blue states, bring their voting habits with them.

Texas was once blood red. But thanks to migration, and maybe other factors, there are now Democratic mayors in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and El Paso. In 2018, a nonentity Democrat named Beto O’Rourke nearly beat incumbent Republican Ted Cruz for a U.S. Senate seat. That was both a wakeup call and a harbinger of things to come.

In 2020, Trump lost crimson Georgia to Biden. It was close, but the results have been verified. You think it’s going to get better for the GOP as more Northerners flock to high-energy Atlanta? Once tomato red, Arizona turned blue, along with New Mexico.

In my mind I hear John Revere on horseback, riding through the hill country, shouting, “The Democrats are coming! The Democrats are coming.”

And they are.

The GOP gain may prove to be a mirage.