Congressional district tables updated

I updated the Iowa congressional history maps online soon after they were approved, but had to take some time tweaking the lists.

But now, the color-coded county-by-county chart of Iowa’s districts has been updated for the 2010s. The 5th District is gone. Counties in the north-central part of the state stayed in the 4th. The only county to stay in the numerically 3rd District is Polk, as that changes places completely from central to southwest Iowa. The southeast, historically in the 1st until the 1990s, remained in the 2nd. Some counties around Dubuque will still be in the 1st.

As what might be expected from losing a district, no county is in the same numbered district in the 2010s as it was in the 1990s, when long-time patterns were reworked after losing a district in the 1990 census.

One of the more notable trivia bits of this redistricting: For the first time in Iowa history, Black Hawk and Butler counties are separated. Chuck Grassley’s farm and the nearest large city will now have different U.S. representatives.

As another illustration of how much Iowa’s congressional power has diminished, counties in northwest Iowa that once were in the 10th and 11th Districts are now in the 4th — the highest-numbered district left.

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