WEBVTT 00:00.210 --> 00:04.480 JUDY WOODRUFF: As we reported earlier, the first batch of results from the 2020 census 00:04.480 --> 00:09.480 count are in, and the U.S. population top 331 million last year. 00:10.610 --> 00:15.309 The Bureau also released state population numbers, which will reshape the balance of 00:15.309 --> 00:19.470 power in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next decade. 00:19.470 --> 00:20.470 Lisa Desjardins reports. 00:20.470 --> 00:22.130 MICHAEL C. COOK SR., Public Information Office Chief, U.S. Census Bureau: Good afternoon. 00:22.130 --> 00:25.979 LISA DESJARDINS: Rarely is a sedate Zoom call this politically dramatic. 00:25.979 --> 00:30.759 MICHAEL C. COOK SR.: The South grew the fastest over the last decade, with a 10.2 percent 00:30.759 --> 00:32.169 increase in population. 00:32.169 --> 00:36.530 LISA DESJARDINS: With jewel-toned backgrounds, U.S. Census staff announced population shifts 00:36.530 --> 00:39.469 that could change the red and blue balance in Congress. 00:39.469 --> 00:41.559 DR. RON JARMIN, Acting Director, U.S. Census Bureau: Let's get to the results you have 00:41.559 --> 00:42.559 all been waiting for. 00:42.559 --> 00:46.520 LISA DESJARDINS: The Bureau showed three states in the South have gained enough population 00:46.520 --> 00:51.520 to add seats in Congress, Texas gaining two seats and North Carolina and Florida one apiece. 00:53.170 --> 00:58.170 The other three states adding one each are West, Colorado, Montana and Oregon. In turn, 01:00.030 --> 01:05.030 seven states will lose one seat each, California and then a cluster of Rust Belt states, West 01:06.000 --> 01:10.810 Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and New York. 01:10.810 --> 01:15.810 For New York, some sting to the loss. Officials said the state needed to count just 89 more 01:16.870 --> 01:20.369 people to keep all of its congressional seats. 01:20.369 --> 01:21.579 Reporters triple-checked that. 01:21.579 --> 01:24.980 WOMAN: Wow. That's a big loss for just 89 people. 01:24.980 --> 01:28.810 WOMAN: I can just confirm that the number, when you calculate it, is 89. 01:28.810 --> 01:33.810 LISA DESJARDINS: This after the census and its army of workers faced a plague of challenges. 01:35.030 --> 01:39.710 Coinciding with a once-a-century pandemic was just one. 01:39.710 --> 01:44.710 The count is as critical as ever. It determines how many seats each state gets in the House 01:46.070 --> 01:51.070 of Representatives. And it guides at least a trillion dollars to state and local governments 01:51.780 --> 01:56.310 for programs like Medicaid, Medicare, school lunches, and more. 01:56.310 --> 01:58.979 Hansi Lo Wang covers the census for NPR. 01:58.979 --> 02:01.619 How big a deal is the announcement today? 02:01.619 --> 02:06.619 HANSI LO WANG, NPR: This is a very big deal. This is a culmination of nearly a decade's 02:07.049 --> 02:12.049 worth of planning and execution last year, and this is a once-a-decade reset of the national 02:13.290 --> 02:14.290 political map. 02:14.290 --> 02:16.800 LISA DESJARDINS: Hence the massive drive for responses. 02:16.800 --> 02:21.380 ACTOR: Counting everyone in your home helps support your neighborhood for the next 10 02:21.380 --> 02:24.670 years by funding things like schools, hospitals and buses. 02:24.670 --> 02:29.670 LISA DESJARDINS: But like so much in 2020, the census was hit with unprecedented acts 02:30.240 --> 02:35.240 of God and man. March 2018, the Trump administration adds a question asking if people are U.S. 02:38.090 --> 02:43.090 citizens. Ultimately, the Supreme Court blocks the idea, but it raises confusion and fear 02:43.350 --> 02:45.200 in some immigrant communities. 02:45.200 --> 02:50.200 January 2019, the partial government shutdown furloughs some census staff during a critical 02:51.870 --> 02:56.870 preparation time. March 2020, the coronavirus hits precisely as census forms are mailed 02:58.850 --> 03:03.440 out. The agency delays its field operations for almost two months. 03:03.440 --> 03:08.440 Then, September 2020: Hurricanes and wildfires across the country hit during the crucial 03:09.890 --> 03:11.840 final full month of counting. 03:11.840 --> 03:15.090 HANSI LO WANG: The 2020 census was just a mess. 03:15.090 --> 03:20.090 LISA DESJARDINS: Wang says the layers of issues add to regular questions about undercounted 03:20.230 --> 03:23.390 groups, people of color, immigrants and rural Americans. 03:23.390 --> 03:28.390 HANSI LO WANG: For the 2020 census, all of these groups face a higher risk of being undercounted, 03:28.450 --> 03:33.450 because the Census Bureau was really strapped to try to get door-knockers out to communities 03:33.660 --> 03:37.931 while there were lockdowns in place, while there were major public health concerns, as 03:37.931 --> 03:42.230 well as the Trump administration cutting short the amount of time door-knockers had to reach 03:42.230 --> 03:43.230 these households. 03:43.230 --> 03:45.780 LISA DESJARDINS: Census officials today stood by their count. 03:45.780 --> 03:48.880 ALBERT E. FONTENOT JR., Decennial Census Programs: We feel very confident that we did a good 03:48.880 --> 03:52.170 job of collecting data in spite of the COVID-19 outbreak. 03:52.170 --> 03:57.150 LISA DESJARDINS: Even so, states that lost, like New York, are sure to be unhappy, along 03:57.150 --> 04:02.150 with some states that gained, like Florida, which expected two new seats, not just one. 04:03.240 --> 04:07.660 It's too late to add more population, but states do have one option: to appeal these 04:07.660 --> 04:09.310 numbers in court. 04:09.310 --> 04:11.500 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins. 04:11.500 --> 04:16.500 JUDY WOODRUFF: And to dive deeper into the political ramifications of the census data 04:17.109 --> 04:21.859 released today, I'm joined by Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report. 04:21.859 --> 04:22.930 So hello, Amy. 04:22.930 --> 04:27.930 Let's take that deeper dive. And tell us a little more about how Democrats, Republicans 04:28.729 --> 04:31.289 are affected at the congressional level and then nationally. 04:31.289 --> 04:33.240 AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Sure. 04:33.240 --> 04:38.240 Well, let's start with the winners. On the map, we saw that Texas was the biggest winner, 04:40.210 --> 04:45.210 picking up two seats. But you also notice something else here. Republicans have to be 04:46.439 --> 04:51.439 happy with the fact that Texas, Florida and North Carolina all gaining seats. Not only 04:52.300 --> 04:57.300 are these states that President Trump -- then President Trump won in the 2020 election and 04:57.979 --> 05:02.979 the 2016 election, but they also are three states that are controlled completely by Republicans. 05:05.880 --> 05:10.880 So, Republicans control the entire redistricting process in those states that are going to 05:10.900 --> 05:15.900 pick up four congressional seats. Democrats, Oregon, Colorado are two states that Biden 05:16.919 --> 05:21.849 carried, President Biden carried in 2020. That is helpful to them. 05:21.849 --> 05:26.849 And let's go to the losers. We have more states here, seven states that are losing one congressional 05:28.870 --> 05:33.870 district. For Democrats you look at some of those big dark blue state, the ones that are 05:36.789 --> 05:41.789 the pillars for the Electoral College sort of platform for Democrats to build on, New 05:43.740 --> 05:48.740 York, Illinois, California, all the states losing seats, not great for Democrats. 05:51.830 --> 05:56.629 Republicans losing a seat in West Virginia, that has become now the most Republican state 05:56.629 --> 06:00.629 in the country, after Wyoming, and Ohio, a state that used to be a swing state, that 06:00.629 --> 06:02.749 is now much more Republican leaning. 06:02.749 --> 06:06.770 Overall, though, Judy, if we are looking at the national picture right now, if we put 06:06.770 --> 06:11.770 this map into play in the 2020 election, all right, so everything else remains the same, 06:13.909 --> 06:18.909 it would shift just three electoral votes, three electoral votes away if Biden toward 06:19.969 --> 06:24.969 Trump. So, instead of having 306 electoral votes in his victory, it would be 303 electoral 06:25.759 --> 06:26.759 votes. 06:26.759 --> 06:31.570 It doesn't seem like much, but, Judy, when these races now are decided by just such a 06:31.570 --> 06:35.919 narrow margin, even one electoral vote can be critical. 06:35.919 --> 06:39.509 JUDY WOODRUFF: Yes, every single one. And one can matter. 06:39.509 --> 06:44.509 And, Amy, tell us, what about in terms of drawing congressional district lines? 06:44.680 --> 06:45.680 AMY WALTER: Right. 06:45.680 --> 06:46.680 JUDY WOODRUFF: What are we learning about that? 06:46.680 --> 06:47.680 AMY WALTER: That's right. 06:47.680 --> 06:51.240 This is apportionment. So this is the part where the states learn, did you gain or did 06:51.240 --> 06:56.240 you lose a seat? But the real nitty-gritty is going to come later this summer when the 06:56.770 --> 07:01.259 detailed data is released and they have to start drawing those lines. 07:01.259 --> 07:06.129 That is when you are going to hear words like gerrymander. Even states that aren't gaining 07:06.129 --> 07:10.029 or losing, unless you are a state that only has one congressional district, you have to 07:10.029 --> 07:15.029 redraw your lines. Population shifted around a lot. Think about a place like Georgia, where 07:15.410 --> 07:19.840 the Atlanta suburbs have been booming, not so much in the other parts in the state. 07:19.840 --> 07:23.750 So, they're going to have to readjust those congressional lines. You can gain or lose 07:23.750 --> 07:28.750 a seat as a party just because -- even if you are not gaining or losing a congressional 07:29.650 --> 07:31.539 district, right? 07:31.539 --> 07:36.539 The good news for Democrats, they have more control over the process than they did in 07:37.939 --> 07:42.939 2010, the last time the lines were drawn. The bad news for Democrats, the good news 07:42.960 --> 07:47.960 for Republicans is that Republicans still control more than twice as many congressional 07:49.039 --> 07:54.039 district lines, in terms of, they have total control for drawing that many more lines. 07:54.680 --> 07:59.680 That is likely to help, as I said, especially in places that are fast growing, Texas, North 08:00.979 --> 08:05.979 Carolina, but also in a place like Georgia, where Democrats have made really big gains 08:06.999 --> 08:11.999 in these last two years, but Republicans control the entire line-drawing process. 08:13.069 --> 08:17.999 And so what you may see there is Democrats actually winning two Senate seats, but in 08:17.999 --> 08:21.650 the next upcoming election, they may lose a congressional district. 08:21.650 --> 08:25.559 JUDY WOODRUFF: So much depends on who controls these state legislature.