2022 New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Map

The New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Commission recently wrapped up the process of redrawing the state’s congressional districts based on new Census data. These new districts took effect beginning in 2022 and will shape congressional elections for the next decade.

The controversial, closed-door process resulted in the Commission’s chair, former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice John Wallace, selecting the Democratic Party’s map.

Analyzing the New Boundaries

Following the adoption of the map, the Commission released PDF copies of maps that denote the split between municipalities. The PDFs aren’t that great for zooming in to see the precise differences, and a GIS shapefile didn’t become available until later.

The Commission subsequently released a shapefile that shows the precise boundaries of each congressional district, which I processed and visualized using R and Leaflet to create an interactive map showing all 12 congressional districts.

Code

I created the map using the following R code:

library(sf)
library(leaflet)
library(tidyverse)

# Read in shapefile, arrange by district number
# Source: https://www.njredistrictingcommission.org/documents/2021/Shapefiles2021/NJCD_2021_SHAPE_FILE.zip
shape <- st_read("NJCD_2021_ADOPTED_DEC22.shp") %>%
  arrange(as.numeric(DISTRICT)) %>%
  mutate(DISTRICT = factor(DISTRICT, ordered = TRUE, levels = c(1:12)))

# Create color palette
factpal <- colorFactor(cartography::carto.pal("multi.pal", 13), shape$DISTRICT)

# Build the map
leaflet(shape) %>%
  addTiles() %>%
  addPolygons(
    stroke = FALSE,
    smoothFactor = 0,
    fillOpacity = 0.6,
    fillColor = ~factpal(DISTRICT),
    label = ~paste("Congressional District", DISTRICT)
  ) %>%
  addLegend(
    title = "NJ Redistricting",
    pal = factpal,
    values = ~DISTRICT,
    opacity = 1.0
  )

Key Changes in the New Districts

The 2022 redistricting made several notable changes to district boundaries across the state, reflecting population shifts captured in the 2020 Census. The new map maintains New Jersey’s 12 congressional seats, with boundary adjustments to ensure equal population distribution across all districts.

The redistricting process highlighted the ongoing debate about partisan gerrymandering and the role of independent commissions in drawing fair electoral maps. New Jersey’s bipartisan commission structure, while intended to promote fairness, still resulted in controversy over the final selection process.