- Majority-minority district
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A majority-minority district is a United States congressional district in which the majority of the constituents in the district are racial or ethnic minorities (as opposed to white non-Hispanics). Whether a district is majority-minority is usually decided by United States Census data.
Majority-minority districts are often the result of racial gerrymandering. The value of gerrymandering to create majority-minority districts is a matter of dispute both within and outside of minority communities. Some view majority-minority districts as a way to dilute the voting power of minorities and analogous to racial segregation; others favor majority-minority districts as ways to effectively ensure the election of a minority member of Congress to the House of Representatives. Majority-minority districts are often the subject of legal cases examining the constitutionality of such districts, such as Shaw v. Reno (1993), Miller v. Johnson (1995), and Bush v. Vera (1996)
Contents
African-American majority
Population Data is from 2010 Census Data[1] Congress will redistrict prior to the 2012 elections, so the percentages will not be correct after redistricting.
There is only one African majority congressional district that is represented by a congressman self identified as White Jewish. All members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) except one are Democratic. Although the bylaws do not specify that membership is open only to black members of congress, prominent members of the CBC has publicly said that they will not welcome non-black members. One Republican African American member of congress, Tim Scott has elected not to join the CBC. Steve Cohen has made his desire to join publicly known, but has not pursued membership over objections of the one of the founding members of the group. Keith Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected as a member of Congress.
Congressional Districts with African American Majorities or African American Congressmen Rank Perc. State District 112th Congressional Black Caucus Total 2010 Afric. Amer. 1 69.3% Illinois 2 Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. 602,758 418,008 2 66.5% Mississippi 2 Bennie Thompson 668,263 444,269 3 63.5% Tennessee 9 (Jewish) Steve Cohen [2] 610,823 387,815 4 62.8% Alabama 7 Terri Sewell 603,352 379,083 5 62.6% Illinois 1 Bobby Rush 587,596 368,056 6 62.1% New York 10 Edolphus Towns 677,721 420,649 7 59.8% Ohio 11 Marcia Fudge 540,432 323,174 8 59.2% Michigan 14 John Conyers, Jr. – Dean 550,465 325,975 9 59.0% Michigan 13 Hansen Clarke 519,570 306,339 10 58.8% Louisiana 2 Cedric Richmond 493,352 290,121 11 58.5% Florida 17 Frederica Wilson 655,160 383,415 12 57.5% New Jersey 10 Donald M. Payne 634,343 364,491 13 57.3% Pennsylvania 2 Chaka Fattah 630,277 361,160 14 56.8% Georgia 13 David Scott 784,445 445,720 15 56.6% Maryland 4 Donna Edwards 714,316 403,991 16 56.2% Maryland 7 Elijah Cummings 659,776 370,480 17 56.1% New York 11 Yvette Clarke – Secretary 632,408 354,799 18 56.1% Georgia 4 Hank Johnson 665,541 373,326 19 55.9% Florida 23 Alcee Hastings 684,107 382,691 20 55.6% Missouri 1 William Lacy Clay, Jr. 587,069 326,158 21 55.3% Virginia 3 Bobby Scott 663,390 367,043 22 54.2% South Carolina 6 Jim Clyburn 682,410 369,967 23 52.2% Florida 3 Corrine Brown 659,055 344,319 24 51.8% New York 6 Gregory Meeks 651,764 337,446 25 51.1% Illinois 7 Danny K. Davis 638,105 326,105 26 50.7% District of Columbia At Large Eleanor Holmes Norton 601,723 305,125 27 50.3% Georgia 5 John Lewis 630,462 317,168 28 49.6% North Carolina 1 G. K. Butterfield – 2nd Vice Chair 635,936 315,742 29 48.4% Georgia 2 Sanford Bishop 631,973 305,953 31 43.9% North Carolina 12 Mel Watt 736,346 323,240 33 41.5% Texas 30 Eddie Bernice Johnson 706,469 293,203 35 36.8% Texas 18 Sheila Jackson Lee 720,991 265,109 36 35.9% Wisconsin 4 Gwen Moore 669,015 240,394 38 35.8% Texas 9 Al Green 733,796 262,525 47 32.6% Indiana 7 André Carson – Whip 676,351 220,806 48 31.8% New York 15 Charles B. Rangel 639,873 203,765 54 29.2% California 35 Maxine Waters 662,413 193,648 64 25.3% California 33 Karen Bass 637,122 161,233 66 25.3% Missouri 5 Emanuel Cleaver – Chair 633,887 160,180 77 22.0% California 37 Laura Richardson 648,847 142,623 84 20.9% California 9 Barbara Lee 648,766 135,331 89 19.9% South Carolina 1 Tim Scott (Republican & not a member of CBC) 856,956 169,918 112 15.4% Minnesota 5 Keith Ellison (first Muslim) 616,482 94,990 213 7.4% Florida 22 Allen West (Republican) 694,259 51,706 Asian majority
Only Hawaii's 1st congressional district has an Asian majority. Although there are several people of Asian ancestry in the House there has not been a caucus organized similar to the ones organized for African Americans and Hispanics.
The following table was lists the top 20 districts ranked by percent Asian. The number of districts was chosen arbitrarily. Only three states are represented.
Top 20 Congressional Districts ranked by people identified as Asian on census form Rank Perc. State District Total 2010 Asian 1 52.3% Hawaii 1 658,672 344,397 2 36.7% California 15 677,605 248,707 3 36.3% California 13 665,318 241,798 4 33.8% California 12 651,322 220,118 5 32.7% New York 5 670,130 219,312 6 31.4% California 8 666,827 209,335 7 28.6% California 16 676,880 193,894 8 28.0% California 29 642,138 179,651 9 25.8% Hawaii 2 701,629 180,681 10 22.4% California 32 642,236 143,772 11 21.7% California 14 653,935 141,839 12 20.7% California 40 665,653 137,837 13 20.5% California 42 667,638 136,602 14 19.2% California 26 691,452 132,929 15 19.0% California 48 727,833 138,204 16 19.0% California 46 648,663 123,017 17 18.7% New York 9 660,306 123,454 18 18.3% New York 12 672,358 123,098 19 18.2% California 9 648,766 117,981 20 17.1% California 47 631,422 108,238 Hispanic majority
Congress has two groups for Hispanic congressmen. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus for Democrats, and Congressional Hispanic Conference for Republicans. Both groups permit delegates from territories and Senators as well as Congressmen. The Republican Conference also permits Associate members, for Representatives who are not Hispanic themselves, but have significant numbers of Hispanics in their districts. The Democratic Caucus does not permit similar associate members.
Congresswoman Loretta Sánchez has withdrawn from the Democratic caucus, but her sister Linda T. Sánchez who is also a representative temporarily withdrew, but has since rejoined.
The population data is for the 2010 census, but the congress will redistrict prior to the 2012 election. The percentages will no longer be accurate, and new Hispanic Majority districts may be created.
When a non-hispanic congressmen represents a hispanic majority district, their name and when they began their term of service in congress is indicated. In some cases like Judy May Chu and Maxine Waters they are members of a significant non-hispanic minority group inside the district. In other cases like Jaime Herrera Beutler or Gene Green the representative is simply a different ethnicity than many of their constituents.
Congressional Districts with Hispanic Majorities or Hispanic Congressmen Rank Perc. State District Congressional Hispanic C… Total 2010 Hispanic 1 82.5% Texas 15 Caucus (Democrat) 787,124 649,297 2 81.5% Texas 16 Caucus (Democrat) 757,427 617,465 3 78.9% Texas 28 Caucus (Democrat) 851,824 672,129 4 78.7% California 34 Caucus (Democrat) 654,303 515,167 5 76.0% Texas 29 Gene Green (Jan 3, 1993) 677,032 514,861 6 75.6% Florida 21 Conference (Republican) 693,501 524,005 7 75.4% California 38 Caucus (Democrat) 641,410 483,490 8 73.5% Illinois 4 Caucus (Democrat) 601,156 442,018 9 73.2% Texas 27 Conference (Republican) 741,993 543,306 10 71.6% Florida 25 Conference (Republican) 807,176 577,998 11 71.5% Texas 20 Caucus (Democrat) 711,705 509,208 12 70.4% California 20 Caucus (Democrat) 744,350 523,705 13 69.4% California 43 Caucus (Democrat) 735,581 510,693 14 68.2% California 31 Caucus (Democrat) 611,336 417,183 15 67.6% California 47 Caucus (Democrat) - withdrawn 631,422 426,869 16 66.9% Florida 18 Conference (Republican) 712,790 476,672 17 66.5% New York 16 Caucus (Democrat) 693,819 461,580 18 66.5% California 39 Caucus (Democrat) 643,115 427,353 19 66.4% Texas 23 Conference (Republican) 847,651 562,913 20 64.2% California 32 Judy May Chu (Jul 19th 2009) 642,236 412,275 21 63.9% Arizona 4 Caucus (Democrat) 698,314 446,159 22 62.4% California 51 Bob Filner (Jan 3, 1993) 757,891 473,224 23 57.5% California 28 Howard Berman (Jan 3, 2003) 660,194 379,697 24 56.0% Arizona 7 Caucus (Democrat) 855,769 479,014 25 54.5% California 35 Maxine Waters (Jan 3, 1991) 662,413 360,796 26 52.7% California 18 Caucus (Democrat) 723,607 381,039 27 51.8% New Mexico 2 Conference (Republican) Associate 663,956 343,856 28 51.2% California 21 Conference (Republican) 784,176 401,194 29 50.6% New Jersey 13 Caucus (Democrat) 684,965 346,294 30 50.4% California 17 Sam Farr (Jun 8, 1993) 664,240 334,955 35 45.2% California 45 Conference (Republican) Associate 914,209 413,441 36 44.6% New York 12 Caucus (Democrat) 672,358 299,572 40 42.4% Texas 32 Conference (Republican) Associate 640,419 271,442 46 39.0% New Mexico 3 Caucus (Democrat) 693,284 270,117 57 33.8% Texas 19 Conference (Republican) Associate 698,137 235,973 107 20.8% Arizona 2 Conference (Republican) Associate 972,839 202,001 213 9.9% Idaho 1 Conference (Republican) 841,930 83,326 255 7.4% Washington 3 Conference (Republican) 779,348 57,604 African American plurality, majority non-white
- Florida's 3rd congressional district
- Missouri's 1st congressional district
- Texas's 9th congressional district
- Texas's 18th congressional district
Hispanic plurality, majority non-white
- California's 16th congressional district
- California's 18th congressional district
- California's 33rd congressional district
- California's 35th congressional district
- California's 37th congressional district
- New York's 12th congressional district
- New York's 15th congressional district
- Texas's 30th congressional district
White plurality, combined minority majority
- California's 7th congressional district
- California's 8th congressional district
- California's 9th congressional district
- California's 12th congressional district
- California's 13th congressional district
- California's 15th congressional district
- California's 17th congressional district
- California's 21st congressional district
- California's 23rd congressional district
- California's 27th congressional district
- California's 29th congressional district
- California's 36th congressional district
- California's 40th congressional district
- Florida's 11th congressional district
- Georgia's 13th congressional district
- Hawaii's 2nd congressional district
- New York's 5th congressional district
- New York's 17th congressional district
- North Carolina's 12th congressional district
References
See also
- Majority-minority state
- Race in the United States
- Voting Rights Act
External links
- Use of Racial Data in Redistricting - Background Paper Prepared for the Minnesota Legislature Subcommittee on Geographic Information Systems
- Majority-Minority Voting Districts and Their Role in Politics: Their Advantages, Their Drawbacks, and the Current Law
- Voting wrongs - racial reapportionment
- Race and Redistricting: The Shaw-Cromartie Cases
- The Electoral Competitiveness of Majority-Minority Districts
- Redrawing Lines of Power: Redistricting 2011 Making Contact, produced by the National Radio Project, April 12, 2011
Categories:- United States congressional districts
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