New legislative maps shift voting districts in Minnesota

(FOX 9) - After legislators were unable to reach an agreement on the districts, the Minnesota courts have released new legislative maps on Tuesday.

State lawmakers in the House Chambers poured over the new district maps when they were released at noon on Tuesday. The redrawn maps make it very likely that many lawmakers will have to run against each other to keep their seats. However, the maps were also redrawn for our Congressional districts.

The 2020 census had Minnesota keeping all of its eight Congressional seats, although barely. We came in 89 people ahead of New York state, which meant we kept a seat and New York lost one. Most of the population growth has been in the Twin Cities metro, which means the courts had to re-equalize the Congressional districts.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT CHANGES

In the 2nd district, currently held by Democrat Angie Craig, the district loses all of Goodhue and Wabasha counties and shifts west picking up portions of Rice and all of Le Sueur counties.

The Third district also changes slightly. Democrat Dean Phillips currently represents the district.

The district consists of a good chunk of Hennepin County and the City of Chanhassen. In the new map, Chanhassen is carved out leaving Phillips to consolidate his base in only Hennepin County.

VIEW THE STATE LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT CHANGES BY CLICKING HERE

The 6th district which is all of the western suburbs and exo-suburbs is held by Republican Tom Emmer. He now picks up Chanhassen. His district now includes all of Carver County, which votes Republican.

Finally, let’s look at the 8th Congressional district. This is the old map of the district in northeastern Minnesota. For years, this was a Democratic stronghold, but not anymore. Republican Pete Stauber holds this seat. In the new map, the district moves north and west, picking up International Falls, Lake of the Woods and all of the state’s tribal nations. It is a large territory.

So, with the changes, the DFL will still likely hang on to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th districts in the metro. The 2nd has become the battleground and will like stay that way. The Republicans have the 1st, 6th, 7th, and 8th.

So perhaps not a great deal of change in the political bases of these districts.