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Oklahoma Senate
The Oklahoman: Oklahoma City metro would gain legislative seats under redistricting proposal
Carmen Forman, Oklahoman
The Oklahoma City metro area is poised to gain representation in the statehouse for the next decade.
Proposed redistricting maps for Oklahoma's 149 legislative districts that GOP state lawmakers unveiled Wednesday show the Oklahoma City metro area gaining one Senate seat and one House seat.
The gains are reflective of population shifts that show rural areas losing population and population growth in the Oklahoma City area outpacing growth in Tulsa.
In the past 10 years, population in Oklahoma, Cleveland and Canadian counties grew by about 140,000 people, said Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting.
"This is not an urban versus rural thing," he said. "This is a numbers thing, and it's just where the population ends up."
