Redistricting in Wisconsin

Here’s how new congressional maps shift voting power in every state

By Janie Boschma, Renée Rigdon, Byron Manley and Ethan Cohen, CNN. Additional reporting and design by Melissa DePalo, Eleanor Stubbs and Christopher Hickey, CNN

Last updated: November 8, 2022

Every 10 years, states redraw the boundaries of their congressional districts to reflect new population counts from the census. The Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed congressional lines as the state’s new map. It keeps Wisconsin’s eight congressional districts largely intact and likely maintains the Republican advantage in the House delegation.

In the 4-3 majority opinion, Wisconsin Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote that Evers’ map came closest to the “least change” directive the court said it would strive to adopt when it took over the map-drawing process. The court got involved after Evers vetoed the map the Republican-controlled state legislature passed last year.

How the districts voted in 2020, by presidential vote margin in percentage points

Democratic

30+
15+
5+

Competitive

Within 5

Republican

5+
15+
30+

Old map 8 districts

In the old congressional map, there are 2 Democratic, 1 competitive and 5 Republican districts.

Change

Change in Democratic districts: 0

Change in Competitive districts: 1+1C

Change in Republican districts: -1-1R

New map 8 districts

In the new congressional map, there are 2 Democratic, 2 competitive and 4 Republican districts.

How the new map shifts voting power by demographic

Wisconsin will continue to have eight House seats. In seven, White residents represent the majority. In the 4th District, home to Milwaukee, there isn’t one single racial or ethnic group in the majority.

Number of White-majority districts
Old Map
7
New Map
7
A chart showing the number of White-majority districts has remained the same with 7.
No group has majority
1
1
A chart showing the number of districts where no group has a majority has remained the same with 1.

The group that represents the majority in each district

White
No group has majority

About the data

Sources: US Census Bureau, Edison Research, each state’s legislature or other redistricting authority, Voting and Election Science Team via Harvard University’s Dataverse

Methodology note: Vote margins for new congressional districts are determined by calculating precinct-level vote totals for each district. If a new district splits a precinct, block-level voting-age population is used to allocate that precinct’s votes to the new districts. Block-level demographic data from the 2020 census is reaggregated into each new district’s boundaries.