Counting Chaos: How the 2020 Census Stole Congressional Seats from Red States

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Good Tuesday morning, Patriots. Welcome to O'Connor's Right Stand, where we hold the line unapologetically. I'm your host, John O'Connor, software engineer by day, conservative truth warrior by night, ready to tear into the left's lies with a sledgehammer. New listeners, lock and load, because we're diving headfirst into a political cesspool. Regulars, you know the deal. Hit me up at O'Connor's Stand on X with your rants, cheers, or roast, and let's raise hell. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

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Mine was a little bit of a roller coaster. My fiance wasn't feeling well on Friday, and then by Saturday it was my turn. I ended up going to bed right after dinner. I'd actually planned to take a tour of the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in the Tennessee Mountains on Saturday. Built in 1896, home to some of the state's most notorious criminals and rumored to be haunted. I've heard it's a fascinating place, and when I finally make it out there, I'll be sure to share a clip on X as well as some photos.

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Before we dive into today's topic, I want to give you a quick heads up. There are some exciting changes coming to O'Connor's rights stand. I'll be adding at least one new segment to the show and one of the segments I'm contemplating might even spin off into its own show down the road. I'm also looking to connect with other up and coming conservative podcasters for guest appearances and collaborations. So if you know someone who fits the bill, send me a message on X.

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Building a strong network in the conservative podcast community is important to me, and there's much more to come in the weeks and months ahead. So today, we're jumping right into the festering wound of the 2020 census, a bureaucratic train wreck the left calls data, while it robs red states, pads blue state power, and spits on the constitution. The census bureau's own post enumeration survey admits they botched it, with 14 states miscounted.

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Six undercounted and all red-leaning, like Florida and Texas. And eight overcounted, mostly blue havens like New York and Rhode Island. Florida lost 750,000 people in the count, two congressional seats stolen. Texas, short 550,000, costing one seat. This isn't a glitch, it's a power grab, tilting the Electoral College and 1.5 trillion in federal funds toward the Democrats. And it gets worse.

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Non-citizens were counted, juicing blue steak clout while Heartland America eats crumbs. Since January 2025, Trump's fighting back, floating a new census to count legal Americans only, and the less screaming louder than a vegan at a butcher shop. From rigged counts to stolen seats, from young kids erased to blue states fattened, this crisis is hammering every patriot who values fairness. Grab your coffee, pour that double bourbon if it's nighttime.

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or clutch your pitchfork. We're exposing the culprits, naming the lies, and demanding a reckoning. Ready to hold the line unapologetically? The right stand starts now.

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The census is supposed to be the government's dunk, the one thing even bureaucrats can't botch. Every 10 years, you count the people, divvy up congressional seats, and funnel out federal funds. Easy peasy, right? It's in the Constitution, Article 1, Section 2, clear as a Texas summer sky. Count the whole number of persons, every decade. But in 2020,

03:47
The feds took this layup and turned it into a circus of errors that would make a clown blush and a ringmaster quit. The Post Enumeration Survey, the Census Bureau's own report card, admitted they F'd up. Big time. 14 states had statistically significant miscounts. Six got undercounted. Florida, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Illinois. All red or purple. Eight got overcounted.

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New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota, Ohio, and Utah. Mostly Blue Havens. Coincidence? Yeah, and I'm the Tooth Fairy rocking a MAGA hat. Let's break it down, because numbers don't lie unlike DC pencil pushers. Florida was undercounted by 3.48%. That's 750,000 people missing, enough to fill Miami twice. Texas got robbed of 1.92%.

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or 550,000 souls, bigger than Austin's population. Arkansas took a 5 % hit, like losing half of Little Rock. These aren't rounding errors. They're stolen congressional seats. Florida should have gained two more seats in the House. Texas won. That's three seats total, each carrying one Electoral College vote, shifting a minimum of three Electoral College votes from our red states to their blue states.

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Florida's 29 electoral votes and Texas's 40 took a hit, while Minnesota, home of the Elon Omar Socialist fan club, kept a seat it didn't earn. Rhode Island, smaller than my backyard, clung to a seat it had no business keeping. Colorado snatched a seat they weren't close to even deserving, probably to fund ski resort subsidies for granola munching lefties. The PES

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claims the national count was not statistically different from accurate. But zoom in on these states and it's a different story. Those three seats, plus non-citizen counts inflating blue states, tilted the electoral college toward Democrats, potentially swinging close races like 2020's Nailbiter, where Biden won key states by margins as low as 10,457 votes in Arizona. If that doesn't make your blood boil, it might be a rhino.

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Now let's talk about who got left out. The Census Bureau's data paints a picture uglier than a government's issued DMV photo. Young kids ages zero to four were undercounted by 5.4 % per demographic analysis. Millions of future patriots erased. Black Americans got short-changed by 3.3%. Hispanics took a 4.99 % hit. American Indians on reservations were down 5.64%.

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like they're invisible to Washington's ivory tower. Renters got screwed by 1.48%, probably because they don't live in gated communities with blue state zip codes. Notice a trend? These aren't the folks at GOP fundraisers and pressed khakis. Meanwhile, non-Hispanic whites were overcounted by 1.64%. Asians got a 2.62 % boost. Older folks, especially women over 50, were overcounted by 2.63%.

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The census magically pumps up numbers for groups that lean left or cluster in urban blue strongholds while stiffing conservative leaning demographics like rural families and minority communities that might vote red. It's almost like someone in DC wanted to tilt the scales. This isn't just about numbers. It's about power. Congressional seats determine the electoral college votes, and those decide presidents. Federal funding.

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1.5 trillion a year flows based on these accounts. Under count Texas and Florida, and you're stealing their voice in Congress and starving their schools, highways, and hospitals. In Florida, that means Miami-Dade's classrooms, already packed like sardines, lose millions for teachers and books. In Texas, rural hospitals in places like Lubbock or Amarillo, barely keeping the lights on, get shorted on Medicaid funds.

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Overcount New York and California and you're funneling cash to sanctuary cities, green new New Deal fantasies, and socialist pet projects like free yoga for bureaucrats, or $10 million of art installations in San Francisco. Every undercounted Texan is a middle finger to the heartland. Every overcounted New Yorker is a love letter to the limousine liberals. And counting non-citizens? That's the swamp's ace in the hole.

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inflating blue states clout while diluting your vote. So how did the feds botch this so bad? Start with COVID. The pandemic hit like a freight train in 2020, turning door knocking into a hazmat operation and delaying field work like a DMV line on Monday. But don't let the virus take all the heat. The Census Bureau was underfunded for years, thanks to Congress treating it like the ugly cousin at a reunion. Since 2012, they've been scraping by on pennies.

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Leading to outdated systems, glitchy software, and an online portal so shaky, it probably got hacked by a kid with a Chromebook in his mom's basement. Biden's crew, running the show in 2021 when the final counts were processed, didn't bother fixing the mess. They loved the blue state bias. And a population moving like nomads during lockdowns, people fleeing the cities, crashing with relatives, or going off grid, and natural disasters like hurricanes in Louisiana and wildfires in California.

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and you've got a dumpster fire visible from space. Then there's the differential privacy hogwash. The Census Bureau decided to protect data by adding statistical noise to the numbers, controlled by an epsilon parameter that dictates how much distortion is applied. Sounds cute, like a Snapchat filter, right? Wrong. The 2020 Census used a high epsilon, prioritizing privacy over accuracy.

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which mangled small area data critical for redistricting and local planning. Statisticians, like those cited in the 2020 census reports, warned that noise levels, sometimes shifting block level counts by 10 % or more, screwed rural areas like Tennessee's farm towns or Texas border counties, while urban blue enclaves like Brooklyn skated by. The result? Data useless for drawing fair districts or allocating school funds.

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like navigating Texas with a toddler's crayon scribble. Response rates tanked too. Americans fed up with government's overreach or drowning in robocalls didn't participate. Only 67 % of households responded by mail or online per the Bureau. Low response hit minority and rural communities the hardest, amplifying undercounts in red states. It's not just incompetence, it's incompetence within an agenda.

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The human factor was a disaster. The Bureau hired 400,000 workers, many under-trained, some barely out of college, others just chasing a paycheck to cover student loans. Picture a kid fresh off of a Zoom class on gender studies knocking on doors in a hurricane-ravaged Louisiana town, trying to count folks who trust the government less than a used car salesman. Training was a measly few hours. Per 2020 GAO reports,

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leaving enumerators clueless on how handling refusals or verifying addresses. Add privacy paranoia, people thinking the feds were building a dystopian database, and participation cratered. The 2020 census wasn't a miss. It was a masterclass in screwing over Americans while whistling Kumbaya. This isn't the first time the census played political football. In 1940,

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It undercounted rural areas, giving urban Democrats a leg up in Congress. In 1980, New York sued, claiming undercounts cost them billions in federal funds. Sound familiar? By 1990, the Bureau admitted missing four million people, mostly minorities and low-income folks, sparking a push for statistical adjustment to fudge the numbers. Conservatives fought it, arguing it was a backdoor to boost blue states. Well, guess they were right.

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Studies showed adjustments favored urban areas. In 2010, the census improved, but still undercounted black and Hispanic populations by 1.5 % and 1.54 % respectively. The 2020 census cranked these screw-ups to 11. Hitting red states and conservative-leaning groups are the hardest. It's like the feds have a playbook. When in doubt, tilt left. History doesn't lie, neither do we. Now,

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The elephant in the room, the citizenship question. In his first term, Trump tried to add a common sense question to the 2020 census. Are you a citizen? Seems reasonable, right? We're counting people for seats and funds. Shouldn't we know who's here legally? But the left lost their minds faster than you can say open borders. They screamed it would intimidate immigrants and tank response rates in blue states. The Supreme Court in a 2019 decision

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played the spin the bottle with justice and blocked it. Chief Justice Roberts, ever the fence sitter, said the question wasn't wrong, but the Trumps team's paperwork was flimsy. Thanks, John, for dodging the issue like a politician at a town hall. The left's argument was smoke and mirrors. They claimed a citizenship question would scare off undocumented immigrants, undercounting places like California and New York, home to millions of non-citizens.

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But here's the dirty secret. Counting non-citizens inflates blue states power. A 2020 Pew Research study showed California gained eight congressional seats by counting everyone, legal or not. New York grabbed three, Texas only one. Exclude non-citizens and California and Texas lose a seat. Each, while red-leaning Ohio and Alabama gained one. The left fought to keep that question off because it's their ticket to the house.

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and Electoral College control. It's not about fairness, it's about power. The hypocrisy is galling. The census asked about the citizenship as recently as 2000 in the long form questionnaire and nobody blanked. Actually worked for the 2000 census. Suddenly, it's a crisis. The real crisis is blue states getting extra seats and cash for being illegal immigration magnets. While heartland states like

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My own Tennessee and Missouri eat dust. Trump tried to fix this in 2020 with an executive order to exclude non-citizens from apportionment, but courts tied it up and Biden's crew scrapped it faster than you can say sanctuary city. The 2020 census was the referee blowing the whistle for the wrong team. Fast forward to August, 2025 and Trump's back dropping truth bombs like it's 2016. He announced on Truth Social,

15:20
he's ordering the Commerce Department to work on a new and highly accurate census that excludes people who are in our country illegally. Cue the liberal meltdown. Tears, tangems, and cries of racist. The media is calling it unconstitutional, impossible, and probably a war crime. But let's get to the meat of it. First, legality. The Constitution, Article 1, Section 2, says the census happens every 10 years.

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in such manner as Congress shall by law direct. The 14th Amendment says apportionment counts the whole number of persons in each state. The left waves this like a virtue signal, claiming it means everyone, citizen or not. But the conservative counterpunch, the framers didn't envision millions of illegal immigrants padding populations. In 1787, persons meant legal inhabitants, not border jumpers.

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Trump's argument from his first term was that counting non-citizens rewards lawbreaking and dilutes legal Americans' voices. The Supreme Court dodged this in 2020, dismissing a challenge to Trump's exclusion plan on procedural grounds. With a conservative-leaning court now, thanks justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, there's a shot they'd back Trump in a showdown. Logistics are the snack. A census isn't like ordering wings at

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Buffalo Wild Wings. It's 340 million people, tens of thousands of workers, years of planning. The Census Bureau is prepping for 2030, with a 2026 field test. A mid-decade census needs Congress to pass a new law, since the Census Act, 13 U.S.C. 141, says it's every 10 years, ending it in zero.

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Even if Congress grows a spine, it's billions in costs, an army of workers, and lawsuits from blue states crying, discrimination. Experts like Jeffrey Weiss from New York Law School call it almost logistically impossible before 2026. Tell that to the Trump who's built skyscrapers and won impossible elections. Why is Trump pushing this? He knows the stakes. Red states like Texas and Florida

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screwed in 2020, could gain seats if non-citizens are excluded. Texas has 2 million undocumented immigrants. California's got 2.6. A new count could shift at least two House seats and Electoral College votes, leveling the field for 2026 midterms and 2028. Trump's also eyeing mid-decade redistricting in Texas to maximize GOP seats, potentially flipping rural districts that got undercounted.

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He's playing 4D chess while Democrats fumble checkers again. But the left's not going quietly. The ACLU's lawyering up, claiming it defies the Constitution. Funny how they only love the Constitution when it suits their agenda. Let's cut to the chase. The 2020 census wasn't a screw-up. It was a lefty power grab. Undercounting red states and overcounting blue ones tilted the House and Electoral College toward Democrats.

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Counting non-citizens gives sanctuary states like California and New York clout they don't deserve. Every illegal immigrant granted means more federal dollars for blue state boondoggles. Two billion for California's high-speed rail to nowhere, we've discussed that one. 500 million for New York's migrant shelters or equity programs that funnel cash to connected bureaucrats. Meanwhile, heartland towns like Jonesboro, Arkansas,

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lose 10 million annually for schools, per local estimates because of undercounts. Rural Tennessee hospitals like those in Clarksville beg for Medicaid scraps while California funds free healthcare for non-citizens. Undercounting kids, black Americans, and Hispanics isn't just a stat. It's a betrayal of folks who need a voice. The left doesn't care unless they can spin it into a victim narrative for socialist policies.

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Trump's new census is a middle finger to this rigged system. Is it a long shot? Yeah, sure. Congress needs to move faster than a jackrabbit on a date, and courts must have the guts to uphold it. But the principles rock solid. The census should reflect legal Americans, not reward lawbreaking. If we don't fix this, 2030 will be another decade of blue state dominance, with red states eating crumbs while California and New York feast.

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This isn't about seats. It's about who controls America's future. Do we want a government for citizens or one kowtowing to open border chaos and globalist nonsense? So what do we do, patriots? First, demand accountability. The Census Bureau needs an overhaul, better funding, cutting edge technology, and a commitment to counting legal residents. No more glitchy portals.

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workers who can't find even their own zip code, or differential privacy mumbo jumbo that turns data into a Jackson Pollock painting. Second, rally behind Trump's new census, whether that's mid-decade or a revamped 2030 count. Write your congressmen, even the squishy rhinos, and flood their inbox with demands for a fair count. Use house.gov to find their email. Call their offices. Crash their town halls.

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Post on X with hashtag fix the census. Don't let the left's unconstitutional whining intimidate you. Third, push redistricting reform. Texas and Florida deserve their seats, and mid-decade redistricting could deliver. Texas is already drawing maps to maximize GOP strength, carving districts in places like Collin County to give conservatives a shot. That's how you win.

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But it's about us, the people. Get loud. Talk to your neighbors, church group, hunting buddies, barber, even your bartender. Spread the word. The 2020 census was a wake-up call, and we're not hitting the snooze button. Start petitions on platforms like change.org to demand a new census. Blast the truth on X, truth social, or wherever you're not banned yet. The system's broken. The left's playing dirty.

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But conservatives don't roll over. We fight. Trump's got the right idea. Fix the count. Exclude the illegals. Take back our voice. The road's tough. But since when do we back down? This is O'Connor's right stand, and we're standing tall, ready to drain the swamp and plant freedom's flag. Well, until next time, keep your powder dry, your eyes open, and your heart American.

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We're not just counting heads. We're counting on you to hold the line. This is John O'Connor, signing off.