According to the most recent census Texas will gain four seats, and Florida will gain two seats.  New York and Ohio will lose two seats.

Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington will each pick up a seat.  Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania will each lose a seat.

Such changes can be complex, and I often argue that correlation is not causation.  Yet it may be hard to ignore that the most common attributes of the high growth states as opposed to the low growth is:

  1. Lower taxes
  2. Less government spending
  3. Right to work laws

What about California?  They did not lose seats, but for the first time is 160 years they will gain no seats. Even within the states there was migration from high tax and strong union cities such as San Francisco to lower taxed areas such as Riverside County.

People vote with their feet, but these shifting voters will affect ballots.  Preferences for less taxes and spending is gaining representation in Congress.  Pockets of high tax, big government, pro-union, deep blue voters are losing power.

That is the change we can believe in.

Paraphrased from Unseated by Tim Cavanaugh in the April 2011 hard copy of Reason Magazine

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