From the article:
Census numbers forecasted that Minnesota was scheduled to lose a congressional seat, right up until “blue state” numbers miraculously shot up in contrast to the usually reliable December estimates.
The Bureau has admitted it “overcounted” Minnesota, which helps explains why DFL Chair Ken Martin giddily touted “the state with both the highest census response rate in the nation at 75.1% and the highest voter turnout in the nation.”
Understand, had Minnesota and a few other states lost the House seats they were supposed to, representation in the next Congress might have looked entirely different. After all, Republicans easily won the nationwide popular vote in the midterms but
underperformed in seats gained.
Overcounted the population of eight states, all but one of which is a blue state … Minnesota, according to the original census report, would have lost a congressional seat during reapportionment if it had 26 fewer residents;
the survey shows the state was overcounted by 216,971 individuals. Similarly, Rhode Island would have lost a seat if the Census Bureau had counted 19,000 fewer residents. It turns out that the state was overcounted by more than 55,000 individuals … Texas and Florida should each have received an additional seat in the House. Rhode Island and Minnesota should each have lost a congressional seat — but didn’t. Colorado was given an additional seat it didn’t deserve.