A lot of their most powerful Congresscritters are retiring. Their delegation is quite weakened and there *are* enough states pissed off at them to cancel them out. They have 53 seats in the House... but Texas has 36 all by itself.
We're adding 100K-150K in North Texas every year, and most of it is good. For example, when we moved up here 20 years ago, our local parish had 1000 families. Now, we have roughly 8000 families, and we're the largest parish in the Dallas Diocese, and the 6th largest in the country.
I've been a 6th grade catechist for 19 years (Old Testament), and our lesson this week is Ark of the Covenant, where I put on a replica of the garb worn by the Jewish High Priest.
Very few people know me by name, but those who've been through the sixth grade class know me as the High Priest...lol. We have 500+ a year in the middle school program.