Democrats, Media Blame Trump Over Census Counts, Gov. Cuomo Says He’s Exploring ‘Legal Options’
“You have undocumented people who are nervous to come forward. I do believe the federal government had a chilling effect,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) told reporters Tuesday.
On Monday, we learned more about official census counts from the U.S. government and how the numbers would impact states’ future representation in the House of Representatives.
To quickly recap, five states gained one House seat each: Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon. Texas gained two seats. The seven states that lost one House seat each were California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York:
Here's the breakdown on House seats after the 2020 Census. https://t.co/IXBU35sFww pic.twitter.com/wGd6ZcewBP
— ABC7 Sarasota (@mysuncoast) April 27, 2021
Blue states losing seats was a bitter pill for Democrats to swallow, especially for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after reports said his state lost a seat because it was 89 votes short of keeping its House representation at 27.
Cuomo responded that he wanted to explore “legal options.” He cited the pandemic, problems with the postal service last year, and former President Trump, who Cuomo claimed without evidence caused “undocumented people” to be too “nervous to come forward” and fill out the census:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants state Attorney General Letitia James to “review all legal options available” regarding news that New York will lose one seat in the House of Representatives, following reports that the state was just 89 people short of holding steady.
[…]
“Look, you had a lot going on. You had people who were nervous to come forward, right? You have undocumented people who are nervous to come forward. I do believe the federal government had a chilling effect,” he told reporters.
Cuomo released a statement later in the afternoon citing the count was low due to “unprecedented challenges” over the last year, including “the pandemic’s effect on the mail system to the Trump Administration’s xenophobic, flagrant, and illegal efforts to hurt blue states by discouraging non-citizens and people of color from being counted.”
Watch:
Gov. Cuomo wasn’t the only Democrat who pivoted to blaming the Trump administration over census counts. Eric Holder, who was President Obama’s attorney general and who now chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, told the Washington Post that he “wondered” if “undercounts” in Hispanic communities may have been a big factor in blue states losing seats:
Former attorney general Eric Holder, chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, raised the possibility that the lower-than-expected counts in Florida, Arizona and Texas could be due to an undercount of Hispanics resulting from the Trump administration’s “shameful” handling of the decennial census, including its attempts to include a citizenship question. “I just wonder if it had the impact of suppressing the count,” Holder said.
Not surprisingly, the media jumped on the “Democrats are getting screwed!” bandwagon. Here’s CNN “Prime Time” host Chris Cuomo shilling for his brother as per the norm, suggesting to fellow CNN host Michael Smerconish that red states did not deserve to gain seats because Democrats supposedly represent more people or something:
CUOMO: But as you’ve explained so brilliantly here and on your radio show and your TV show, the representation in Congress does not reflect the population of this country. That you have 50-50 in the Senate and your skinny margin in the House, but Republicans represent a fraction of the people that the Democrats do, so the national polls are relevant. Do they want the George Floyd act if they want the base?
Watch:
The disappointment over blue states losing House seats was very real among the major networks, with Good Morning America also floating Democrat conspiracy theories about the Trump administration allegedly “scaring off” Hispanics from participating in the census:
Without evidence, ABC's @GMA suggests Trump administration manipulated Census numbers by intimidating Hispanics pic.twitter.com/uBHzNsr95S
— Kyle Drennen (@kjdrennen) April 27, 2021
Surprisingly enough, the Washington Post was one of the few news outlets to point out that concerns of Hispanic voters being “undercounted” were overblown:
“Nothing looked terribly outside of expectations or historical patterns,” said Chris Dick, founder of DA Advisors, an analytics consulting company, and former Census Bureau statistician and branch chief. Noting that the Arizona data in 2010 were also lower than estimates, he said, “I think we have to be careful. I don’t think we have enough information to say the census was flawed, but I don’t think we have enough information to say the census was a success.”
Not all states with a high percentage of Hispanics had an undercount, and many states that were undercounted have relatively small Hispanic populations. For instance, while Texas and Florida, which are 39 percent and 26 percent Hispanic, respectively, had undercounts, New Mexico, which is nearly half Hispanic, did not. Nor did California, which is 39 percent Hispanic, or New York, which is 19 percent Hispanic.
[…]
Census counts for the majority of states came within 1 percent of what was projected. But in Arizona and the District, the final count was 3 percent less than projected. On the other end, New York and New Jersey counts came in more than 4 percent higher than what was estimated.
During Tuesday’s press briefing, even White House press secretary Jen Psaki sought to tamp down on Democrat fears that Hispanics were undercounted:
The media are pressing the concept of undercounting on the Census, but shockingly Jen Psaki said the count was statutorily accurate. pic.twitter.com/fYvsz6CpTb
— MRCTV (@mrctv) April 27, 2021
Also, as Real Clear Politics senior elections analyst Sean Trende pointed out, the gains and losses among the states that were impacted were less than what was expected:
New York was on the cusp of losing two seats, while Texas and Florida were in a position to pick up three and two, respectively. Given the legislatures that control redistricting in these states, it seemingly offered substantial opportunities for Republicans to redraw the lines in ways that boosted their chances in the House significantly.
Instead, the reapportionment numbers announced by the U.S. Census Bureau on Monday were something of a wash. Only seven states lost seats while six gained seats.
Historically speaking, Democrats tend to be sore losers when things don’t go their way legislatively, at the ballot box, and in the courts, so expect the squawking from the usual corners over the census numbers to continue until the next round of data is released, presumably later this year.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Lol saw this coming a mile away
LATCHES…. if they wanted to challenge the results they had to do it before the census… oh wait, that only applies to conservatives?
But in all seriousness Cuomo, if you aren’t killing your residents the surviving ones are fleeing.
For the nonlawyers poking around here: “laches” was mispelled, above. It is a defense, which claims an unreasonable delay bring a case to justice which prejudices the defending party.
In the case of NY, the misspelling was not entirely inappropriate. They have to have “latches” on the doors to keep people from fleeing a large part of the state.
And latches on the ladies’ restrooms, in Cuomo and Biden’s cases.
I’ve always been a phonetic speller – 7 patents later it’s never harmed me.
While he’s at it, is he exploring any unconsenting woman’s genitals? Or killing a few more thousand old people?
Hilarious how they tamed him, and now they’re trotting him out as their ‘heavy’. At the very least, this confirms – with anybody how is not willfully blind – how malignant and dangerous the people pulling the strings are.
Hilarious how they tamed him, and now they’re trotting him out as their ‘heavy’.
And interesting how the “Ralph Northam” defense worked – again.
Why isn’t he wearing a mask? (/sarc)
Granny killer Cuomo can sod off. But I don’t know that laches really applies here. Lil Andrew started to squeal immediately upon release of the reallocation of Congressional seats. But really Cuomo this is a case of “read em and weep”. The cards and the count are on the table, and the reallocation follows. If you are going to claim that the votes in the 2020 Presidential election were accurately counted–nothing to see here–a guy who campaigned from his basement “Hiden Biden” got more votes cast for him than any Presidential candidate in history–you’ll need to accept the “fact” that the census count was accurate.
Wasnt NYC a sanctuary city where the illegal immigrants felt safe to vote? and answer the census form so they could receive benefits?
Was. And is.
What goes around, comes around.
Not surprising. Even now the Communists are judge-shopping to find someone who will give them what they want.
And chances are good they will find that judge.
Sorry, Andy. It’s all your fault.
Your policies killed thousands.
Your policies drove thousands to millions of people to flee.
Your policies are what have destroyed New York.
You.
And your ilk before you.
No outside force is to blame. Man up and accept responsibility for once in your life.
Ding-dong Democrat sitting on a fence
Trying to make a majority out of thirty-nine cents
Does logic ever play a part in Dem arguments?
If as Cuomo asserts the pandemic, postal service problems and the “chilling effect” of the last administration affected the census numbers in NY, would those same factors have also affected the other 49 states? in other words, if NY saw “underreporting” in the census for those reasons, would not the other 49 states have underreported thereby balancing / equalizing the census numbers?
If he were going to make such claims, shouldn’t he have to prove that NY was subject to unique burdens that the other states were not subject to?
Gov. Cuomo can easily prove that NY was subject to unique burdens that the other states were not subject to. After all, look who their governor is.
New York had a higher than expected count and Texas a lower than expected count. Maybe New York should lose 2 and Texas gain 3.
not keeping nursing home patients alive has real world consequences, huh Andrew
West Virginia currently has three house seats, all republicans holding those offices. That state will lose a seat, so in reality the republicans directly lose a seat.
What are you saying we need a recount??
No one likes a sniveler, Andy-poo…
Just think, Cuomo, just 90 fewer baby murders and you could have kept the seat.
Or 90 fewer grandma murders.
Taking zero responsibility for the flight of taxpayers from their states. That’s just so typical of Democrats.
Does that mean Republicans have a better shot at picking up seats via census? The House is already razor thin. Hear that Nancy. It’s time to retire.
Maybe Trump should run for Florida’s new seat. Nothing would be more ice-cream-in-the-face for Pelosi than the possibility of Trump being made Speaker in 2022.
The 2000 census and the 2010 census also showed a move from blue states to red states. The trend is not new.
He would probably have a better argument if he had not killed 15,000 elderly in nursing homes last year.
Cuomo should consider NY lucky that the census represents a snapshot of the count on 4/1/20. If it had been later NY would have lost TWO seats!
Based on how many people died of Covid or moved out of New York after filling out their Census, I don’t think Cuomo should want an audit or recount. But maybe he is dumber than he looks.
It’s just more baseless claims from Democrats.
Legal options? There are no legal options. You don’t like the results? Tough shit. Better luck in 2030.
This seems a bit of a distraction which is the inherent structural advantage to Republicans for both houses.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/advantage-gop/?ex_cid=biden-approval
I’d read that but it’s wah wah wah and conspiracy theory BS. I mean that’s your typical retort for dissent on the process that you don’t agree with.
Crash and burn again, Mark.
The NY Dems should blame Trump. After all, his complete inattention to Covid, and his requirements that infected people be placed in nursing homes, surely accounted for at least 89 deaths of people who, if they had not passed, would have been counted and enabled NY to keep its lost Congressional seat.
Oh, wait….
I’ll assume Minnesota sends its love to Gov Cuomo for killing off so many New Yorkers that they got the last Congressional seat, instead of New York, who lost out by 89 souls.