2020 Census turnout could help some states, hurt others

WASHINGTON — States like Texas, Florida and North Carolina are each projected to gain one or more Congressional seats after the 2020 Census.

According to the Census Bureau, 40% of the U.S. population resides in the southern region of the country — which will have a direct impact on how certain states are represented in Washington.

“People are leaving states like California, New Jersey that are high tax, high regulatory and they are moving to places like Texas and Florida because the cost of living is cheaper and for example, both those states have no income tax,” says Hans Von Spakovsky with the Heritage Foundation.

Meanwhile, states that lose a member of Congress will also lose a share of the Electoral College.

And Von Spakovsky says states are pouring millions of dollars to try to prevent that from happening.

“You may not get the share of certain federal programs that you may have gotten before because you just don’t have as big of a population,” he says.

A number of states, California being one of them, are spending a great deal of state budget money to make sure that people participate in the Census.

The Census officially kicks off on April 1.