Congressional Redistricting Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Congressional Redistricting Map Sent To Governor

A congressional redistricting map that would pit two incumbent U.S. House members from West Virginia in the 2022 Republican primary has been sent to Gov. Jim Justice.

The House of Delegates passed the map 84-12 Thursday with four members absent. The state Senate approved the map Wednesday.

After the 2020 census, West Virginia lost one of its three U.S. House seats. The approved map would combine most of the current districts of U.S. Reps. David McKinley and Alex Mooney into the new northern 2nd District. Rep. Carol Miller would be in the new 1st District. All three are Republicans.

The map deviates from the ideal population of 896,858 in each new district by about 1,500 people, placing more residents in the northern district.

The new 2nd District would run from Wood County along the Ohio River to the Eastern Panhandle and include the Northern Panhandle.

Miller’s new district includes the southern part of the state and takes in north-central Gilmer County from McKinley’s former district. From Mooney’s old district it grabs the Charleston area and several surrounding counties along with Pendleton County along the Virginia line.

McKinley is in his sixth term and Mooney his fourth. McKinley, 74, founded a Wheeling architectural and engineering firm and is a former state GOP chairman and a seventh-generation West Virginian. Mooney, 50, is a former Maryland state senator and Maryland Republican Party chairman who moved about 25 miles (40 kilometers) in 2013 from Frederick, Maryland, to Charles Town, West Virginia.

Miller, a 70-year-old Huntington resident, is in her second term. She previously served in the House of Delegates for 12 years and is the daughter of the late Ohio U.S. Rep. Samuel Devine.

On May 19, 2021, McKinley was one of 35 Republicans who joined all Democrats in voting to support an independent commission on the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Mooney and Miller voted against the legislation, which was later blocked by Republicans in the U.S. Senate.

The House later approved its own 13-member special committee to probe the violent attack. McKinley, Miller and Mooney voted against the committee’s formation.

In other action, the Senate postponed a third reading of its 17-district redistricting bill until Friday. The Senate also must take up the House’s redistricting map. The House passed a new single-member district system for all 100 delegates on Wednesday, a change mandated by 2018 legislation. Currently, there are 67 districts and more than half of the House is elected from multiple-member districts.

House, Senate Make Progress As Redistricting Efforts Continue in Special Session

Lawmakers working in special session this week in Charleston made progress Wednesday on federal and state redistricting efforts.

The House of Delegates passed the third reading of H.B. 301, which divides the state of West Virginia into 100 single-member delegate districts. The final vote was 79 to 20 with one absent.

Democrats offered several amendments to the map proposed by the Republican-dominated redistricting committee, but each of the amendments were rejected along mostly party lines.

The House bill now goes to the Senate where it is expected to pass overwhelmingly.

The Senate passed a bill on third reading to accept a north-south configuration for new Congressional districts. The redraw, which divided the state from three into two Congressional districts, is due to population losses calculated in the most recent Census.

A new map has passed third reading in the W.Va. Senate that would divide the state into a north-south configuration for two seats on the U.S. House of Representatives. It keeps population in each district nearly equal.

Senate lawmakers voted 30-2 with two absent to accept what has been referred to as the Trump 8 map. This map is similar to a previously considered map, Trump 11, but shifts two counties. Ritchie County now moves into District 1 in the north, and Pendleton moves into District 2, which encompasses the southern half of the state.

Charles Trump, a Republican from Morgan County and the Senate Redistricting Committee chairman, said he’s confident this version passes state and federal constitutional muster.

“I think it reflects best in the way that the citizens of West Virginia, perhaps live, think, act,” Trump said from the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon.

On population, he added: “It’s very very close… The truth is this. In West Virginia you can’t get the absolute numerical equality unless you are willing to divide a county. Having these two districts be as close as they are in terms of population… I believe will satisfy any constitutional challenge that will come.”

Lawmakers Move Proposed Redrawn Maps Through Legislative Process

West Virginia lawmakers endorsed proposed maps of congressional and state legislative districts during the second day of a special session on redistricting. That sets up a potential fight between two of the state’s current members of Congress.

In the proposed map, Rep. David McKinley and Rep. Alex Mooney would be in the same district. All three current U.S. House members from West Virginia are Republicans.

Maps redrawing Senate and House districts have also advanced to the third reading which should take place on Wednesday in their respective houses. No amendments have been offered on either map so far, but they are expected on the third reading.

House of Delegates single-member districts were mandated in a 2018 bill that passed the Legislature. Currently, there are 67 districts and more than half of the House is elected from multiple-member districts.

Public Hearings On Congressional Redistricting Begin This Week

The West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Committee on Redistricting has announced the format for public hearings on redistricting, which are set to begin July 27.

These are listening events for the public to share their thoughts about Congressional and legislative boundary lines. The West Virginia Constitution requires the Legislature to redraw these lines every 10 years using U.S. Census data to reflect any population changes.

Due to the delay in the federal government releasing Census data, specific population numbers will not be available at these events, and the committee will not be presenting any proposed maps. Legislators will not respond to questions during the public hearing.

All 12 in-person public hearings will take place from 6-8 p.m. The sign-in process will begin at 5:30 p.m. Anyone who would like to be guaranteed an opportunity to speak during the hearings will need to be present to sign in by 6 p.m. The events will begin shortly after 6 p.m. with welcome remarks and a reminder of these procedures.

The number of people who sign in to speak at each hearing will be divided by the amount of time available for the event to determine the amount of time each person will have to speak. A red light will indicate when each speaker has reached that time limit.

You can find more information on the process online.

Hearings are scheduled for the following dates and locations, and are subject to change:

July 27: Putnam County Judicial Building, The Courtroom, Room 202, 12093 Winfield Road Winfield, WV 25213

July 29: Chief Logan Lodge Hotel Conference Center, 1000 Conference Center Drive, Logan, WV 25601

Aug. 3: Tamarack, Gov. Hulett C. Smith Theater 1 Tamarack Park, Beckley, WV 25801

Aug. 4: Summersville Arena & Conference Center 3 Armory Way, Summersville, WV 26651

Aug. 10: Stonewall Resort State Park, Birch Room, 149 State Park Trail, Roanoke, WV 26447

Aug. 12: Monongalia County Extension Services & 4H Center at Mylan Park, 270 Mylan Park Lane, Morgantown, WV 26501

Aug. 17: Martinsburg Sheriff’s Office Meeting Room 510 S Raleigh St, Martinsburg, WV 25401

Aug. 18: Keyser VFD Station 2, 1550 Cornell St Keyser WV 26726

Aug. 24: Wheeling Independence Hall, 1528 Market St, Wheeling, WV 26003

Aug. 26: Cabell County Courthouse, Courtroom #1 Judge Paul Farrell’s courtroom 750 5th Ave, Huntington, WV 25701

Sept. 9: The Culture Center, Building 9, Capitol Complex, 1900 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston, WV 25305

Sept. 16: Judge Donald F. Black, Courthouse Annex,317 Market St, Parkersburg, WV 26101

Looking Ahead To Redistricting: How W.Va.’s Loss Of A Congressional Seat Might Affect What’s Next

Officials with the U.S. Census Bureau announced preliminary data this week that shows congressional reapportionment for the next decade — including West Virginia losing a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As federal officials reported Monday, West Virginia lost 3.2 percent of its population since the 2010 Census — the highest rate of population loss in the entire nation. With the state moving from three seats in the U.S. House to two, its likely two Republican incumbents will be pitted against one another in a 2022 primary.

Reps. David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Carol Miller — who currently hold seats in the state’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts, respectively — have all said they plan to seek reelection.

However, with census results being delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, West Virginia lawmakers will have to wait until the fall to consider redistricting on the congressional and state levels. All three of West Virginia’s U.S. House members have said they will reevaluate their reelection bids once that occurs.

Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center on Politics, noted that many have expected the state to be split in half, horizontally, for the new congressional map.

“The suggestion in the past has been for there to essentially be kind of a northern half and a southern half,” Kondik said.

Despite the final results of the census and new maps being months away, Kondik said West Virginians already have some idea how things might look, based on the preliminary data released this week.

“The [current] 3rd District — based on the incomplete numbers we have now — lost the most population, followed by the 1st District,” he said. “The 2nd District — which cuts across the center of the state — actually gained population. So, you’re gonna have to account for those sorts of changes.”

All of this will play a role in the political calculus for McKinley, Mooney and Miller, Kondik said.

“Presumably one of these members will be able to run without a primary. But they’re going to be running in a different district than they’re used to. And that might actually invite a primary challenge — or maybe a general election challenge,” he said.

But Kondik said — given former President Donald Trump’s dominance in West Virginia in the 2020 election, despite losing nationally — it’s improbable that Democrats can regain one of the U.S. House seats.

“West Virginia’s become so Republican at the federal level that Democrats probably can’t put up much of a fight in either of these districts — given what we’ve seen over the past several cycles in West Virginia,” he said.

With West Virginia’s two House districts expected to heavily favor Republicans in 2022, Kondik said one of the state’s current House members may opt out of running this cycle to set their sights on 2024 and the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin — the lone West Virginia Democrat in federal office.

“I think the Republican Senate nomination in 2024 is a pretty valuable nomination to have because Joe Manchin only won pretty narrowly in 2018 and that should be a very competitive race in 2024 — and one that a Republican may very well be favored to win,” Kondik said.

With the 2020 Census results delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and interference by the Trump administration, many expect court challenges to the drawing of new maps this cycle.

Whether those hold enough merit to further slow the process or change the course of how maps look remains to be seen, but Kondik notes that things should go smoothly in West Virginia.

“There can always be lawsuits with redistricting, although some of the most common lawsuits in redistricting are over the creation of majority-minority districts where Black residents or Hispanic residents or Asian American residents may make up a majority or a near majority of the members of the people in a district,” Kondik said.

But with West Virginia’s overwhelmingly white population, Kondik said those types of lawsuits are unlikely here.

While West Virginia’s constitution and state code imposes no deadline on the Legislature to redraw district maps, the filing period for the 2022 election cycle opens in January — putting at least some pressure on the Republican supermajorities in the House of Delegates and state Senate to give potential candidates an idea of what district they’d be running in.

Lawmakers are expected to return to Charleston in the fall for a special session on redistricting. Final census results, which will inform the new maps, are expected to be released by the end of September.

W.Va. Redistricting Resulted in Simple Swap

The complicated redistricting process prompted by population shifts resulted in one simple change in West Virginia’s congressional districts.

After two legislative committees adjusted political district boundaries to ensure equal representation, and an ensuing lawsuit challenging the plan was dismissed, Mason County was moved from the 2nd to the 3rd congressional district.

A more ambitious draft plan that switched 19 counties among the three congressional districts was rejected.

The 2010 Census showed population growth in the Eastern Panhandle and the Morgantown area and declines in the southern coalfields and the Northern Panhandle.

West Virginia Wesleyan College political science professor Robert Rupp says that while state lawmakers avoided making wholesale swaps in district lines, he expects more dramatic changes after the 2020 Census.