Is it realistically possible to pack Kevin McCarthy and Devin Nunes into the same district of California loses a seat? What about to eliminate one of their seats without endangering any Democrats via ripple effect?
Why do you think this?
Well, multiple reasons. CA is redistricted by a commission which prioritizes groups of interest and not political parties. This has the aftereffect of the commission usually creating competitive maps with a good amount of R seats due to how geographically condensed R voters are becoming in the state.
Packing Nunes and McCarthy into the same district really doesnt make sense at all when looking at voter groups and communities of interest. The North of the San Joaquin valley that Nunes reside in has a highly different makeup when compared to the South where McCarthy is. While Nunes represents a minority-plurality seat, McCarthy is still representing a White Majority seat. While Nunes represents Fresno suburbs McCarthy represents the exurban and rural desert of the area. The two areas are vastly different, and if both were combined it would not be considered a seat where CoI was taken into account.
Theres also population to consider; the San Joaquin valley has room for more than 5 congressional seats, even when reducing the seat count from 53 to 52. Due to how the commission loves CoI, that means there must be 5 seats in the valley. Combining Nunes and McCarthy would be basically impossible to do population-wise, instead
if the map were to not include Nunes it would be because of a massive landswap between the valley seats that would include Nune's property. Drawing Nunes and McCarthy together basically doesnt work with current growth the valley has undergone.
The San Joaquin valley itself isnt likely for a seat merger. A more likely candidate would be LA, or the very North of the state(where the population has actually declined). Nunes and McCarthy should be appearing in congress together in 2022 unless either retire or Nunes loses.
