The footprint of two legislative districts in Kingfisher County will shrink, while two others will expand, if proposed redistricting maps are ultimately approved.

Senate District 26 (Darcy Jech, R-Kingfisher) will gain a larger share of the county, as will House District 59 (Mike Dobrinski, R-Okeene).

Meanwhile, Senate District 20 (Chuck Hall, R-Perry) and House District 41 (Denise Crosswhite Hader, R-Piedmont) will include smaller segments of the county.

Senate District 23 (Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle), which now includes the town of Okarche, will shift out of the county entirely.

Based on anticipated census numbers, Oklahoma’s population grew 5.5% to nearly 4 million people since the 2010 census, but most of that growth was concentrated in or near the major metropolitan areas.

All of the county’s representatives expressed approval with both the process and the result of redistricting, an every-10-years requirement that reapportions legislative districts to include roughly equal populations, based on the current census.

This time around, that target amount is measured at 81,935 for each of the 48 Senate districts (up from 78,153 in 2010) and 38,939 in each of 101 House districts (up from 37,142).

Both Houses will vote on legislation in the coming days approving the proposed redistricting maps, but due to pandemic delays in the census process, the changes can’t be finalized until final numbers are certified by the U.S. Census Bureau on Sept. 30.

U.S. congressional districts go through a similar apportionment process, and preliminary numbers reflect gains and losses at the federal level as well.

In total, seven seats shifted affecting 13 states. Texas gains two seats and Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon each gain one seat, while California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia each lose one seat.

Redistricting changes for both state and federal legislative districts don’t take effect until the next election cycle in 2022.

State Senate Changes

Jech’s District 26 will expand in Kingfisher County to include the lion’s share geographically.

Currently, Jech represents the southwest corner of the county, with Paxton’s District 23 taking in the town of Okarche and Hall’s District 20 including the remainder of the county.

Under the proposed district maps, Jech’s representation will expand to include all but slightly less than the northwest quadrant of the county.

“I’m pleased about that,” he said. “My district will break at the (Cimarron) River so I will have all of Okarche, Kingfisher, Cashion and Lomega, basically all but Dover and Hennessey.”

He said his district as a whole will become “a lot more compact.”

“That’s one of the criteria they were shooting for – trying to keep cities and counties whole as much as possible,” Jech said. “I will lose Beckham and all of Roger Mills counties, but I picked up more of Kingfisher and will have all of Custer County, as well as keeping all of Blaine and Caddo County.”

To boost the population for his district, which he said was down about 6% from the target goal, District 26 also will “inherit a little bit of Canadian County.”

He noted that he is pleased that his district will remain “largely rural for the most part,” and said that maintaining a rural voice in the legislature will be a challenge in the future.

“The state grew 5 or so percent but mostly in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Cleveland and Canadian (counties),” he said. “Going forward, that’s going to be a challenge with not much growth in rural counties.”

Jech also commended the work of the Senate Redistricting Committee in managing the entire process and developing the maps, with the assistance of much public input.

“I’m not on the committee and this is the first redistricting process that I’ve been through (as senator). I get the impression that there’s been a lot more openness and transparency,” Jech said.

Hall said his district grew by about 4,000 people since the 2020 census.

His current representation of most of Kingfisher County will be reduced to the northwest corner, defined by the Dover-Loyal blacktop to the east and the Cimarron River to the south.

“Every district around District 20 was in need of population and needed to gain. I was one of the few – because Logan County was one of the fastest growing counties – to actually gain population,” Hall said. “To keep all things equal, I’ll have to lose population.”

He said he also believes that “rural Oklahoma will have as strong a representation as ever.

“As the metropolitan areas grow both geographically and via population, the interests of rural Oklahomans can potentially be at risk,” Hall said. “I’m really pleased that with the exception of one rural district, all our rural districts were maintained.

“I lost a little bit of Kingfisher County, but I was able to pick up some rural areas in Payne County.

“I’ll still be advocating for public schools and agribusiness in the state of Oklahoma and farmers and ranchers. I look forward to being that voice on behalf of Senate District 20.”

House District Changes

Dobrinski’s District 59 and Hader’s District 41 will continue to share represen tation of Kingfisher County, but in different proportions.

While far-ranging District 59 remained largely static as far as population growth in the last 10 years (from 37,142 to 37,154), more people were needed to reach the 2020 representation target.

By contrast, Crosswhite Hader’s District 41, encompassing a chunk of Canadian County, Cashion and parts of Enid, saw growth of close to 8,000 in population.

“That’s why you do redistricting, to balance that back out,” she said.

District 41 contracts under the new maps to about half its former size geographically and no longer includes any representation in Garfield County, along with a smaller footprint in Kingfisher, Logan, Canadian and Oklahoma counties.

“We all knew for awhile that District 41 was going to have to change because of the population explosion,” Dobrinski said. “The need for someone to cover that Garfield County area was an opportunity for me to pull back a litle bit away from the metro and make sure that District 59 stays rural.

“It ended up pulling me totally out of Canadian, which isn’t ideal because I have some great friends and supporters in that area who worked hard for me and I need to contact them to express my appreciation for their support, but for the most part I am pleased with what I will have,” Dobrinski said.

“I am happy to have a more compact district that maintains my rural representation.”

Crosswhite’s district has been geographically reduced to less than half its current size, from about 775 square miles to about 300.

The Piedmont native who remembers when the whole town was about 1,500 people “and now just the high school is that or more,” said she appreciates that her district is still more rural or suburban than it is urban.

“Sometimes when you have a hunk of really urban area, it’s really harder to connect with people,” she said.

“Rural folks are a little more open about communicating and especially when it comes campaign time and I’m going door-to-door.”

District 41 picks up a little more of Logan County, which she said was a little closer to her home county than Garfield County was.

“I’ll get to meet a whole new group of people,” she said.

Like Jech and Hall, Dobrinski and Crosswhite Hader have never been through a redistricting process and both also commented on how well this year’s reallocation project has operated.

“It’s definitely a team effort,” Crosswhite Hader said.

“It’s a bit daunting when you think about it.

“I’m grateful we have really good staff that is on top of all of this.

“I don’t know how they did this before we had computers.”