With the numbers now out from the Census 2020 effort, the big work for state government will be to carve out new Congressional districts as a result of balancing the population increases and decreases – as each seat has to have only a certain number of people.
In Massachusetts District 7, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley is reported to have to great a number in population, but isn’t likely to lose any parts of Boston as the seat has historically been mostly Boston and Suffolk County environs like Chelsea. Now, sources are saying, it looks like it might be Everett that Pressley loses to balance out the population in her district. Other locales could be parts of Randolph or Milton – but likely wouldn’t be in the south area of the district as she lives in Hyde Park.
Sources said many believe losing Everett would make sense for Pressley, as the City was only included in the District last time around. Previously, the former seat of Sen. Ed Markey held Everett, a seat now held by Congresswoman Katherine Clarke. That seat might be a natural fit for Everett, with that district balancing its numbers through losses in the Metro West part of the district.
The official redistricting process, due to the Census 2020 coming out so late thanks to COVID-19 delays, now must be done by state government relatively quickly.