8th Congressional District Now Includes All Native Reservations North Of Twin Cities

The 8th District shifted further west, now it including all of Minnesota's Native American reservations north of the Twin Cities.

DULUTH, Minn.-. Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District now encompasses more of the Northern part of the state after the map was re-drawn.

The 8th District shifted further west, now it including all of Minnesota’s Native American reservations north of the Twin Cities.

They’re now included with Iron Range mining and Duluth’s urban economies, among others, according to Dr. Cynthia Rugeley, Associate Professor and Department Head of Political Science at UMD.

“It’s different personalities different economic personalities and it’ll be interesting to see how these new counties blend into that,” Dr. Rugeley said. “You know the new district the new counties to the south also how do they play.”

“So it makes representation interesting because there are so many different personalities and goals in it,” said the Associate Professor.

If all reservations are unified on a given issue, Dr. Rugeley said, they could sway votes in a way the district maybe hasn’t seen before.

“You look at Arizona in the last election, Arizona native communities elected Joe Biden president,” Dr. Rugeley said. “You know could something like that happen here? I don’t know. But if I was representing that district I would certainly pay them some attention.”

Redistricting happens every 10 years when census data is used to edit boundaries to ensure each district has an equal population.

In Minnesota, the divided legislature and governor failed to agree on new maps for the state’s 8 districts. So the job fell to a Supreme Court-appointed panel of five judges.

According to the panel, the ideal population for each district is 713,212 residents, 85,172 residents for each of the 67 state Senate districts, and 42,586 residents for each of the 134 state House districts.

“Minnesota may be punting to the courts but it works I mean it takes away from, it saves, there’s no Gerrymandering and I mean that’s what’s, that’s what’s controversial,” said Dr. Rugeley,