Joint committee presents plan to redraw Mississippi’s Congressional districts

(The Center Square) – Against the backdrop of statewide population loss, a Mississippi panel has backed a proposed 10-year Congressional district map. The latest map iteration could be taken up when the legislature reconvenes in the early days of the new year.

A majority of the 20 state House and Senate members serving on the Joint Congressional Redistricting Committee voted in favor of the plan at a meeting Dec. 15. It almost evenly splits population counts across all four of the state’s Congressional districts.

State Rep. Jim Beckett, R-Bruce, is chair of the panel tasked with overseeing the redistricting, which comes on the heels of once every decade U.S. Census figures. He described the map proposal as the culmination of “a great deal of work.”

A number of pieces of data went into the map plan, state Rep. Jason White, R-West, said. White outlined the rationale behind the Congressional map plan, which has been colloquially referred to as the “Magnolia proposal,” at the committee meeting.

“I would submit to you it’s a good Congressional plan, for the citizens of the state of Mississippi,” White said.

Mississippi’s statewide population is over 2.96 million people. Final 2020 U.S. Census figures indicate a decline of 6,018 people, which had a heavier impact on some areas of the state than others.

The proposed Congressional map has nearly identical population counts, White said, which is one of multiple stipulations included in the federal Voting Rights Act.

Congressional districts 1 and 2 have 743,019 registered voters each in the proposal, while districts 3 and 4 have 743,020 and 743,021 registered voters, respectively.

Combing through comparable data between 2010 and 2020, White said Congressional districts 1, 3 and 4 all incurred population gains in their current iterations, with fluctuations ranging from 1.24% to 4.82%.

Congressional District 2, meanwhile, had what White described as “significant loss of population” in its current configuration – to the tune of 9.08%.

District 2, which encompasses the highest concentration of Mississippi’s Black population, was the focal point of the committee’s discussion. The plan White presented proposes running District 2 along the entire western edge of the state.

If the map is adopted as presented, District 2 would have a Black population of 62.27%, up from the 61.36% representation in the map drawn up a decade ago.

“During the last 10 years, and certainly based on history and political performance … (it) has been sufficient to afford minority citizens the opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice for Congress in District 2,” White said.

Other considerations went into the Congressional map redrawing process, including geography and contiguity, White said

Most of the proposed Congressional district lines are along county borders, though there are several exceptions, White said. The number of split-county districts mirrors the existing map from a decade ago.

Other considerations in the process included keeping universities and military sites in separate districts.

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