Here’s Who Will Be Affected by Disruptions to Federal Food Aid
"More SNAP recipients live in Democratic districts. But the program touches every corner of the country.
The federal food assistance program now at the center of a legal battle during the government shutdown serves nearly 42 million people. It pays for groceries for one in eight Americans, and more than one in three households in counties that rely the most on it.
The administration had said it would not tap contingency funds to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program operating as of Saturday, threatening to halt benefits for the first time in the program’s modern history. On Friday, two federal judgesinitially sided with Democratic-led states and local organizations who sued to force the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay benefits. But families now enter November not knowing how quickly any funds may arrive, whether they’ll be reduced in scale or how long the legal wrangling will last.
Here’s just how wide-reaching the program is, according to a New York Times analysis of government data:
Share of households receiving SNAP benefits by county
Source: New York Times analysis of U.S.D.A. and American Community Survey data
Households and local economies depend heavily on SNAP on Native American reservations in South Dakota, in high cost-of-living cities like New York, and in parts of Alaska with limited grocery retailers. It’s prevalent where there are many low-paying hospitality jobs in parts of Florida, as well as in farming communities in California’s Central Valley.
This widespread use, touching nearly every part of the country, means that any disruption to SNAP benefits threatens to accelerate pain from the shutdown nationwide. But in keeping with other moves by the Trump administration during the budget impasse, its attempt to cut off food aid could also have a disproportionate political impact in Congress.
Among the 50 congressional districts with the highest SNAP participation rates, 43 are represented by Democrats (this includes Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva, who has not yet been sworn in).
U.S House districts with the highest rates of SNAP participation
| District | Representative | Participation Rate | 2024 Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| N.Y. 15th | Torres | 61% | D+55 |
| Calif. 21st | Costa | 55% | D+5 |
| Calif. 22nd | Valadao | 52% | R+7 |
| N.Y. 13th | Espaillat | 46% | D+67 |
| Pa. 2nd | Boyle | 44% | D+43 |
| N.Y. 8th | Jeffries | 43% | D+51 |
| Calif. 13th | Gray | 42% | D+0 |
| Calif. 25th | Ruiz | 42% | D+13 |
| Calif. 37th | Kamlager-Dove | 41% | D |
| Calif. 43rd | Waters | 41% | D+50 |
| Calif. 34th | Gomez | 40% | D |
| Mich. 13th | Thanedar | 40% | D+44 |
| Calif. 23rd | Obernolte | 36% | R+20 |
| Mass. 1st | Neal | 36% | D |
| Fla. 26th | Diaz-Balart | 36% | R+42 |
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