Mass. begins 2030 Census prep amid national redistricting fights

New from CommonWealth Beacon SCHOOL BUILDINGS: The state reimbursement program for school building projects puts urban districts at a disadvantage, leaving their infrastructure aging and out of date, according to a new report by the MassINC Policy Center and the Worcester Regional Research Bureau. Hallie Claflin has the details.

Mass. begins 2030 Census prep amid national redistricting fights   October 8, 2025 By CHRIS LISINSKI

Door-knockers will not start counting the number of Americans for another four-plus years, but amid an intense redistricting fight in other parts of the country, the 2030 Census in Massachusetts is already in the spotlight.

The Census process has always carried massive political stakes, but this cycle has become more fraught after Texas Republicans reshaped their political districts in August to add House seats to their majority. Because the Census determines the number of seats each state is allotted in Congress – as well as federal funding for certain programs – officials in Massachusetts are under more pressure this cycle to make sure that every resident is counted.

“This work never really stops,” Sen. William Brownsberger, who leads the Senate Committee on the Census, said in an interview.

Democrats who control the political map-drawing process in Massachusetts have no plans to reshape the state’s congressional districts partway through the decade. (California voters will decide in a November 4 special election whether to temporarily redraw their maps to shift five Republican seats to Democrats, a measure Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed for to offset the Texas changes.)

Yet there’s still plenty of labor ahead for state and municipal leaders, who need to ensure every new housing unit built in the past five years is on the Census Bureau’s radar, convince their constituents to answer questions about themselves during a period of aggressive immigration enforcement, and monitor population trends for a hint at whether Massachusetts might gain or lose a seat in the US House, where all nine of the state’s representatives are Democrats.

That’s a particular sticking point for President Donald Trump, who took aim at the Bay State this summer, contending that Massachusetts has highly gerrymandered districts and that his vote share (about 36 percent in 2024) should have translated into at least one GOP representative in Congress.

Most Republicans in the state House and Senate supported the congressional map drawn after the last Census, and GOP Gov. Charlie Baker signed it into law.

“Massachusetts is a state in which there are a percentage of people who vote for Donald Trump, but those people are distributed across the state in every district, so redrawing the districts wouldn’t really change the balance at all,” Brownsberger said. “There’s very little prospect of cooking the books to elect a Republican.”

Just past the midpoint in the decade, much of the Census preparation focuses on housing. Brownsberger said the Census Bureau develops a list of “every single housing unit in the country,” which becomes the primary foundation for the actual population count.

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More Context Competitiveness and migration reports agree to disagree (September 2024)  Census shows recent growth in most Mass. cities and towns (May 2025)

More from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: Jennifer Smith and Michael Leary, director of media relations for Berkshire Health Systems, discuss what makes Berkshire County such a complicated place for health care access. The far-flung region’s geography is a challenge on its own, and that’s before factoring in the system-wide staffing crunches and looming Medicaid cuts.  FEDERAL FUNDING: The state can’t make up for all the federal government spending cuts that are occurring, according to Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka, who also said she’s not looking to raise taxes as part of any response. Michael Norton of State House News Service has more.  OPINION: Student outcomes in math and reading remain well below 2019 levels across all student groups, and only 13 of more than 350 Massachusetts districts have returned to pre-pandemic performance. In a state that prides itself on high-quality public education, we are graduating students with fewer skills and diminished economic mobility, writes Kerry Donahue, executive director of Teach for America Massachusetts.

What We're Reading COAL: Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire, the last coal-fired power plant in New England, has stopped running, making the region the first in the country without a coal facility on the grid. (WBUR)  OVERRIDES: The House plans to vote Wednesday to override several budget vetoes Gov. Maura Healey issued, forcing through tens of millions of dollars in spending top Democrats deemed “absolutely necessary” despite a darkening fiscal picture. (State House News Service – paywall)  COURTHOUSES: Civil rights attorneys contended that Massachusetts trial court leaders are “falling short” of protecting immigrants in court proceedings amid intense federal immigration enforcement action. (Law360)  TRAFFICKING: Anti-human trafficking activists are concerned that Trump administration funding and staff cuts are “dissembling” programs and services that help survivors. (GBH News)  FISHING: Federal clean energy spending cuts killed a research project that would have examined how offshore wind projects, like those being built off the coast of Massachusetts, affect commercial fish species. (New Bedford Light)

Published by MassINC

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