Pressure is likely to mount on Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to call a special session this year to vote on redistricting maps, which will require lawmakers to refashion dwindling districts on the ends of the state.
The once-a-decade legislative and congressional redistricting hinges on U.S. Census data, the collection of which was complicated by the pandemic.
But in Kentucky, the big question mark is whether the state’s Democratic governor will grant a special session this year to allow the GOP-dominated legislature time to vote on maps ahead of the January 7 filing deadline for candidates. And population shifts will create even more work for lawmakers.
"We're going to have some really tough decisions to make," Republican Senator Damon Thayer told the interim joint committee on state government Tuesday. "These maps in Eastern and Western Kentucky are going to look differently. There are going to be fewer districts, fewer Senate districts and fewer House districts... so we might as well get that out there and on the record."
That’s because more residents have been moving toward what’s often called the Golden Triangle of Lexington, Louisville, and the northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area. The Courier-Journalreports that could push some rural Republican incumbents out of their districts.
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