Why Arizona didn’t gain an additional seat in Congress

The results for the 2020 Census have been released, and Arizona did not gain an additional seat in Congress, which surprised many people. One person who warned this could happen was Representative Ruben Gallego, from District 7. Gallego warned that a question about citizenship would deter many Latinos from filling out the census as well as the shortened period of time in which the census was conducted would also account for an undercount.

Gallego even introduced a bill to extend the census counting time, but it failed. He blames Governor Ducey for not pushing back on former President Trump, accusing both men of politicizing the census with the citizenship question. It appears Arizona’s population was undercounted, and it could result in a loss of federal dollars for public services, according to Gallego.

Gallego said he does not believe the Governor put enough money into the census. He believes there is an undercount from bad leadership and bad branding. Others believe they did a good job. Gallego does not agree at all. He said there is clearly an undercount issue, and they may just not care about the millions of dollars they may be missing out on.

The pandemic also had to do with the undercount, he said. Although, he also believes this was an “intentional part of Trump’s legacy.” Gallego explains his reasoning on this. He said even though it hurts the state, it is intentional, because he thinks Trump did not want states that are turning blue to get more congressional seats. Gallego said the census is supposed to count every single person that lives in the United States.