The Midwest and specifically Michigan are facing huge implications from the loss of many congressional seats and resulting power that will have a major impact on state and local government budgets and operations.
The region's economy has been struggling for decades - the Great Recession just worsened problems.
Midwestern manufacturing employment has been declining since at least 1980. Michigan hasn't had a year of net job growth since the Clinton administration.
No state between Minnesota and Pennsylvania has gained congressional seats since the 1960 Census.
Will the Midwest matter in Congress and in the 2012 Presidential elections with such huge gains in populations in the south, southwest and west?
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Being from Illinois and attending NMU here in Michigan, I'm firmly rooted in the Midwest. I feel connected with the people of the midwest and know that times are tough and the population of our region is continuing to shrink as industry and corporate businesses head for higher ground in other states that offer better tax incentives, looser labor laws, and out of union's influence on politicians and policy. Illinois, only second to New York, lost the most population in the last year for this reason exactly. Now Illinois is also facing the possibility of loosing a seat in the House of Representatives. With fewer votes available to midwestern states, the midwest could soon become irrelevant in policy making of the country. Whether or not the impact is going to be felt this year or the next, I believe it will be. Politics is a team sport and politicians are going to vote according to their constituents interests and to trends in their political demographics. If the numbers are telling the House and Senate that the for the first time in over a century the majority of the population of the country is outside of the Midwest then their votes and policy are going to be used to appease the shift. The Presidential election will certainly be up for grabs, and this also affects the Midwest as President Obama hales from Chicago, and grew up in Kansas. His support from the Democrats may be lessened as the possibility of another Democrat out of the South or Southwest maybe able to garner more support in 2012, though that is only my speculation. In short, yes the migration of people of the Midwest is going to affect the impact that the region has on Congress immediately in the two years that follow.
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