Photo: Alamy
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said on Monday that new information suggests that the 2020 U.S. census miscounted the population in ways that may have cost Republicans several seats in the House of Representatives.
Speaking on the television program “Just the News, No Noise,” Comer said the count was flawed because of methods used during the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-person data collection was limited.
“The basic count was miscounted grossly in the last census, to the tune of costing the Republicans anywhere from four to five congressional seat,” Comer said. “The fact that we lost [is] because the Census Bureau was biased. If you go back to when the census was taken, the last time it was during COVID, no one knocked on anybody’s doors because of COVID. So they ended up estimating.
“They overestimated Democrats in the Democratic areas, which are the urban, rundown communities across America, and they undercounted all the suburban areas, which are the Republicans [fastest] growing areas,” he added.
Comer said states such as California, New York and Rhode Island should have lost additional House seats, while Florida and Texas should have gained more representation due to population shifts during the pandemic.
“This was a census that really messed up, and it erred on the side of Democrats and against Republicans, and I hope that that mistake is not made again,” Comer said.
The U.S. Census Bureau conducts a nationwide population count every 10 years, which is used to determine representation in Congress and the allocation of federal resources.
The Census Bureau has previously acknowledged challenges during the 2020 count due to the pandemic, but has said it used multiple methods to ensure accuracy. Critics and analysts continue to debate the extent to which any discrepancies may have impacted congressional representation.