New District in DFW really has to go to the Democrats.
Dallas + Tarrant County combined voted for Obama, and we only have 1 Democratic district there. If you don’t draw a 2nd Democratic district, we’ll lose 24, 26, 32, and possibly 3 by the end of the decade. New District basically connects all the Democrats in FT. Worth to those in West Dallas County.
My Texas map is better than both of the GRIT ones, IMO.
I would not regress too heavily on the Obama-McCain race. I recall Michael Barone saying there were a lot of areas that ordinarily vote Republican that voted for Obama.
House Republicans in ‘10 took 56%, and that’s not even counting the 24th (Marchant was unopposed).
For the TX State Representatives in ‘10, the count was 57% R. 25 Seats, 17-8 R. Average population of the 8 Dem seats: 148059. Average population of the 17 R seats 167282.