List of majority-minority United States congressional districts

A majority-minority district is an electoral district, such as a United States congressional district, in which the majority of the constituents in the district are nonwhite or racial or ethnic minorities (as opposed to white non-Hispanics). Whether a district is majority-minority is usually ascertained using United States Census data.

Majority-minority districts may be created to avoid or remedy violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965's prohibitions on drawing redistricting plans that diminish the ability of a racial or language minority to elect its candidates of choice. In some instances, majority-minority districts may result from affirmative racial gerrymandering. The value of drawing district lines to create majority-minority districts is a matter of dispute both within and outside of minority communities. Some view majority-minority districts as a way to dilute the voting power of minorities and analogous to racial segregation; others favor majority-minority districts as ways to effectively ensure the election of minorities to legislative bodies, including the House of Representatives. Majority-minority districts have been the subject of legal cases examining the constitutionality of such districts, including Shaw v. Reno (1993), Miller v. Johnson (1995), and Bush v. Vera (1996).

Districts with an African-American majority

Population data are from 2015 Census American Community Survey One-Year Estimates.^[1] Districts in the table below reflect the 114th Congress.

There is only one African American majority congressional district that is represented by a Congressman who is not African American, Rep. Steve Cohen (TN). While Cohen has made his desire to join publicly known, he has not pursued membership over objections of the one of the founding members of the group. ^[2] All members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) except one are Democratic. Although the bylaws do not specify that membership is open only to black members of congress, prominent members of the CBC have publicly stated that they will not welcome non-black members. One Republican African American member of congress, Tim Scott has elected not to join the CBC. Keith Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected as a member of Congress. Stacey Plaskett, the non-voting delegate representing the Virgin Islands, is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

*Congressional Districts with African American Majorities or African American Members of Congress*
Rank	Perc.	State	District	115th Congressional Black Caucus	Total 2015	Afric. Amer.
1	66.3%	Mississippi	2	Bennie G. Thompson	724,075	480,259
2	65.2%	Tennessee	9	Steve Cohen	705,879	460,533
3	63.6%	Alabama	7	Terri A. Sewell	667,721	424,814
4	60.5%	Louisiana	2	Cedric Richmond – Chair	791,393	478,785
5	59.4%	Georgia	4	Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr.	746,519	443,473
6	58.4%	Georgia	13	David Scott	755,256	441,129
7	57.8%	Georgia	5	John Lewis	736,978	425,941
8	57.6%	South Carolina	6	James E. Clyburn	661,521	381,321
9	57.6%	Pennsylvania	2	Dwight Evans	725,418	418,109
10	57.1%	Virginia	3	Robert C. "Bobby" Scott	738,228	421,775
11	56.5%	Illinois	2	Robin Kelly	702,674	396,854
12	56.1%	Michigan	14	Brenda Lawrence – Secretary	695,410	390,402
13	55.5%	Michigan	13	Vacant	679,235	376,665
14	55.2%	Florida	24	Frederica Wilson	745,862	411,387
15	54.0%	Maryland	7	Elijah Cummings	729,001	393,457
16	53.7%	Florida	20	Alcee L. Hastings	767,766	412,471
17	52.9%	Maryland	4	Anthony G. Brown– Parliamentarian	745,629	394,713
18	52.7%	New York	8	Hakeem Jeffries	769,795	405,603
19	52.7%	Ohio	11	Marcia L. Fudge	704,489	370,986
20	52.6%	Georgia	2	Sanford D. Bishop, Jr.	683,888	359,884
21	52.4%	North Carolina	1	G.K. Butterfield	728,488	381,897
22	51.0%	Illinois	1	Bobby L. Rush	717,447	366,000
23	50.3%	New Jersey	10	Donald Payne, Jr.	764,684	384,341
24	49.7%	New York	9	Yvette D. Clark – Member-At-Large	759,225	377,346
25	49.6%	Florida	5	Al Lawson	743,735	368,715
26	49.4%	North Carolina	12	Alma Adams	793,964	392,085
27	49.3%	New York	5	Gregory W. Meeks	779,896	384,325
28	49.2%	Missouri	1	William "Lacy" Clay, Jr.	736,055	361,855
29	48.9%	Illinois	7	Danny K. Davis	721,321	352,801
30	47.4%	District of Columbia	At large	Eleanor Holmes Norton (non-voting member)	672,228	318,813
31	43.6%	Texas	30	Eddie Bernice Johnson	754,382	329,176
32	38.0%	Texas	9	Al Green	782,554	297,672
34	36.4%	Texas	18	Sheila Jackson Lee	764,622	278,538
41	33.4%	Wisconsin	4	Gwen Moore– Whip	716,998	239,546
43	32.7%	Ohio	3	Joyce Beatty	767,295	250,694
50	29.1%	Indiana	7	André Carson – First Vice Chair	749,776	218,178
51	28.8%	New York	13	Adriano Espaillat	790,434	227,395
66	23.7%	California	37	Karen Bass – Second Vice Chair	722,781	171,348
68	22.6%	California	43	Maxine Waters	744,444	168,304
72	21.9%	Missouri	5	Emanuel Cleaver	757,920	165,779
91	18.2%	New Jersey	12	Bonnie Watson Coleman	751,650	137,082
97	17.4%	California	13	Barbara Lee	755,776	131,230
100	17.0%	Minnesota	5	Keith Ellison	707,578	120,100
106	16.4%	Texas	33	Marc Veasey	740,323	121,258
395	1.8%	Utah	4	Mia Love	762,014	13,433

Districts with an Asian Pacific Islander majority, plurality, or significant minority

There are currently 45 members in the United States Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). Unlike its sister groups, the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus, CAPAC includes members who are of API descent or represent large API populations.

The following table was lists the top 20 districts of API population.

*Top 20 Congressional Districts ranked by people identified as Asian on census form*
Rank	Perc.	State	District	Member	Total 2015	Asian Amer.
1	52.9%	California	17	Ro Khanna	760,444	402,466
2	49.3%	Hawaii	1	Colleen Hanabusa	705,773	348,082
3	40.4%	New York	6	Grace Meng	744,562	300,927
4	38.2%	California	27	Judy Chu	733,239	279,772
5	33.9%	California	14	Jackie Speier	757,062	256,559
6	33.8%	California	15	Eric Swalwell	771,800	260,823
7	32.5%	California	12	Nancy Pelosi	749,688	243,713
8	31.0%	California	39	Ed Royce	731,324	226,345
9	27.1%	California	19	Zoe Lofgren	765,143	207,126
10	25.2%	Hawaii	2	Tulsi Gabbard	725,830	183,186
11	24.5%	California	45	Mimi Walters	771,550	189,250
12	22.8%	California	18	Anna G. Eshoo	738,774	168,606
13	22.2%	Washington	9	Adam Smith	728,262	161,938
14	22.0%	California	47	Alan Lowenthal	718,339	158,377
15	20.3%	California	13	Barbara Lee	755,776	153,406
16	19.6%	California	34	Jimmy Gomez	735,150	144,019
17	19.6%	New York	10	Jerrold Nadler	728,323	142,560
18	19.2%	California	52	Scott Peters	755,498	145,039
19	19.0%	New Jersey	6	Frank Pallone, Jr.	753,711	143,071
20	18.6%	New York	7	Nydia M. Velázquez	753,292	140,170

Districts with a Hispanic/Latino majority

Congress has two groups for Hispanic congressmen. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus for Democrats, and Congressional Hispanic Conference for Republicans. Both groups permit delegates from territories and Senators as well as Congressmen. The Republican Conference also permits Associate members, for Representatives who are not Hispanic themselves, but have significant numbers of Hispanics in their districts. The Democratic Caucus does not permit similar associate members.

Congresswoman Loretta Sánchez has withdrawn from the Democratic caucus. Her sister Linda T. Sánchez, also a representative, withdrew temporarily, but has since rejoined.

The population data is for the 2010 census, but the congress will redistrict prior to the 2012 election. The percentages will no longer be accurate and new Hispanic Majority districts may be created.

When a non-Hispanic congressmen represents a Hispanic majority district, their name and when they began their term of service in congress is indicated. In some cases like Judy May Chu and Maxine Waters they are members of a significant non-Hispanic minority group inside the district. In other cases like Jaime Herrera Beutler or Gene Green the representative is simply a different ethnicity than many of their constituents.

*Congressional Districts with Hispanic Majorities or Hispanic Congressmen*
Rank	Perc.	State	District	Congressional Hispanic C…	Total 2010	Hispanic
1	82.5%	Texas	15	Caucus (Democrat)	787,124	649,297
2	81.5%	Texas	16	Caucus (Democrat)	757,427	617,465
3	78.9%	Texas	28	Caucus (Democrat)	851,824	672,129
4	78.7%	California	34	Caucus (Democrat)	654,303	515,167
5	76.0%	Texas	29	Gene Green (Jan 3, 1993)	677,032	514,861
6	75.6%	Florida	21	Conference (Republican)	693,501	524,005
7	75.4%	California	38	Caucus (Democrat)	641,410	483,490
8	73.5%	Illinois	4	Caucus (Democrat)	601,156	442,018
9	73.2%	Texas	27	Conference (Republican)	741,993	543,306
10	71.6%	Florida	25	Conference (Republican)	807,176	577,998
11	71.5%	Texas	20	Caucus (Democrat)	711,705	509,208
12	70.4%	California	20	Caucus (Democrat)	744,350	523,705
13	69.4%	California	43	Caucus (Democrat)	735,581	510,693
14	68.2%	California	31	Caucus (Democrat)	611,336	417,183
15	67.6%	California	47	Caucus (Democrat) - withdrawn	631,422	426,869
16	66.9%	Florida	18	Conference (Republican)	712,790	476,672
17	66.5%	New York	16	Caucus (Democrat)	693,819	461,580
18	66.5%	California	39	Caucus (Democrat)	643,115	427,353
19	66.4%	Texas	23	Conference (Republican)	847,651	562,913
20	64.2%	California	32	Judy May Chu (Jul 19th 2009)	642,236	412,275
21	63.9%	Arizona	4	Caucus (Democrat)	698,314	446,159
22	62.4%	California	51	Bob Filner (Jan 3, 1993)	757,891	473,224
23	57.5%	California	28	Howard Berman (Jan 3, 2003)	660,194	379,697
24	56.0%	Arizona	7	Caucus (Democrat)	855,769	479,014
25	54.5%	California	35	Maxine Waters (Jan 3, 1991)	662,413	360,796
26	52.7%	California	18	Caucus (Democrat)	723,607	381,039
27	51.8%	New Mexico	2	Conference (Republican) Associate	663,956	343,856
28	51.2%	California	21	Conference (Republican)	784,176	401,194
29	50.6%	New Jersey	13	Caucus (Democrat)	684,965	346,294
30	50.4%	California	17	Sam Farr (Jun 8, 1993)	664,240	334,955
35	45.2%	California	45	Conference (Republican) Associate	914,209	413,441
36	44.6%	New York	12	Caucus (Democrat)	672,358	299,572
40	42.4%	Texas	32	Conference (Republican) Associate	640,419	271,442
46	39.0%	New Mexico	3	Caucus (Democrat)	693,284	270,117
57	33.8%	Texas	19	Conference (Republican) Associate	698,137	235,973
107	20.8%	Arizona	2	Conference (Republican) Associate	972,839	202,001
213	9.9%	Idaho	1	Conference (Republican)	841,930	83,326
255	7.4%	Washington	3	Conference (Republican)	779,348	57,604

Districts with an African-American plurality

Districts with a Hispanic/Latino plurality

Districts with a white plurality (majority-minority)

References

↑ "2015 American Community Survey".
↑ Bacon Jr, Perry (July 20, 2010). "Black Caucus lines up for white Steve Cohen over black rival". The Washington Post.

External links

Use of Racial Data in Redistricting - Background Paper Prepared for the Minnesota Legislature Subcommittee on Geographic Information Systems
Majority-Minority Voting Districts and Their Role in Politics: Their Advantages, Their Drawbacks, and the Current Law
Voting wrongs - racial reapportionment
Race and Redistricting: The Shaw-Cromartie Cases
The Electoral Competitiveness of Majority-Minority Districts
Redrawing Lines of Power: Redistricting 2011 Making Contact, produced by the National Radio Project, April 12, 2011

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[1] "2015 American Community Survey".

[2] Bacon Jr, Perry (July 20, 2010). "Black Caucus lines up for white Steve Cohen over black rival". The Washington Post.