Lib-Run NY Facing Loss of Congressional Seats as Residents Flee to Other States
When the 2020 Census is said and done, it could end with the state of New York losing a little bit of its electoral power.
A new study found that the Empire State was one of only 10 states to lose population between July of 2018 and July of 2019. The Empire Center found, via Census Bureau data, that 180,649 more residents had moved out of the state than moved in.
The state did receive 45,753 foreign immigrants over that period, but that was the lowest immigrant total for a single year period since 2010. It was also the second-lowest in the last 58 years.
“The result was a net migration loss of 134,896 people — the second largest since 1980,” the Empire Center reported.
Keep in mind that 1980 was a pretty dire time for New York City, too. If you had the choice to leave NYC during that period in time, you would have.
That’s how bad things are for New York state — they’re getting close to the population loss during a time when the state’s biggest city was a mess.
Overall, the state shed 0.4 percent of its population by mid-2019. Only West Virginia, Alaska and Illinois saw faster declines.
During the 2010s, nearly 1.4 million residents have left the state for other parts of the country; factoring in foreign immigration and births, the Empire Center said New York’s “total population barely budged.” The net outflow was the largest in the United States and by a percentage of estimated state population at the beginning of the decade was second only to Alaska.
In terms of population growth by state, New York ranked number 46 out of 50 during the past decade.
And that, according to demographer and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution William Frey, could lead to them losing a congressional seat when reapportionment happens after the 2020 Census.
Frey looked at what the data might show in 2020, and it doesn’t look good for liberal states — including New York and California.
“Slower growth in California, and faster growth elsewhere, could lead to the nation’s most populous state losing one congressional district … That would be the state’s first ever loss of a congressional seat … Following the 2010 census, its apportionment of 53 congressional seats remained constant,” Frey projected, according to CNN.
“In addition to California, he projected that Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia could each lose a seat.”
Frey projected that Texas was set to gain three seats and Florida two seats, meanwhile.
It could be even worse for New York than in Frey’s projection, however. The New York Post noted it could be possible that the state loses two congressional seats.
It’s not difficult to figure out why people are leaving New York, given that it’s the same reason many people are leaving other liberal states. Property and rent are expensive. So are taxes. Jobs are going elsewhere.
And why is that? The government in Albany, which is now fully Democratic. It doesn’t help that local governments are reliably liberal in many of the state’s most populous locales, as well.
This is the self-correcting brilliance of the Constitution. If you want to have liberals run your state into the ground, well, go for it. People will leave and so will your congressional seats.
Now, granted, states like Texas and Florida aren’t uniformly conservative — they’ve given us Beto O’Rourke and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, respectively — but reapportioning seats there make it significantly more likely you’re going to see a Republican than a Democrat.
Meanwhile, the cost of living in New York will keep going up while jobs continue to leave. I know this because, well, I know Democrats. I’ve seen how this has worked in states like New York and California — and yet, politicians in neither state seem to have learned any sort of lesson.
Keep digging, New York. Eventually, you’ll hit bottom — I think.
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