Texas Mid-Decade Redistricting in 2025

Like many individuals in this nation, I used to be appalled on the bald-face makes an attempt by 45 to rig the midterms election by getting crimson states to do unprecedented mid-decade redistricting of the election maps. Granted, it wasn’t completely unprecedented as Republicans in Texas did it in 2002, after they gained voting majorities in each Houses of the Texas Legislature and management of all statewide elected places of work. Again, it was the Republicans in order that they need to inform you one thing proper there.

Well, the map they got here up with for Texas congressional districts was as gerrymandered as you’ll be able to think about. Now, for a number of a long time now, I’ve advocated for creating voting districts in such a approach as to make them as compact as doable and logical in their association. This being me, I made a decision to strive my very own hand at doing a redistricting map for Texas. First, I got here up with common pointers to assist me preserve partisanship out of it. Second, I ignored ALL established energy bases and incumbencies. I simply do not care who holds any elected workplace or how lengthy they have been in workplace or how secure their district is for them. As the saying goes, the voters ought to select their representatives as a substitute of the events selecting their voters.

My reasoning for that was easy… districts ought to develop their very own character by the populations in them, to not create sinecures to entrench political energy the place it would not exist with out particular and intentional gerrymandering. If a district finally ends up being crimson, nice, it is crimson. If it goes blue, that is the way it needs to be for that space. And if a district is fluid, then that’s better of all. One of the massive causes that politics have grow to be so divisive in this nation is as a result of extremist candidates do not must enchantment to a wide-range of voters so there may be nothing to mood them after they run for workplace. We want mess, we’d like uncertainty and, sure, we’d like some chaos in there.

Now, when creating my very own districting map, the ONLY factor that I checked out had been county boundaries and county populations. Literally, these had been the one two items of data I used. Now, I solely did a map for congressional districts, however the identical thought would apply to drawing all different state districts for the state legislature. Also, as a result of I haven’t got precinct maps and populations, I didn’t draw out the precise district boundaries which are inner to any county however, since only a few counties are divided in my maps, I believe that it might additionally work on a county-level map.

Here are the rules I developed:

Redistricting Rules / Guidelines
(October 2025)

1.) As a lot as doable, preserve counties intact.

2.) No county might be divided between greater than two districts. (There is one exception made with Harris County that’s defined under.)

3.) Start on the corners. In Texas, which means Bowie County in the NW, Jefferson/Orange Counties in the SW, Cameron County in the S, El Paso County in the West, and the Panhandle in the N. After the corners, go across the arduous edges of the state traces after which, work your approach inward. This will outcome in some districts which may maintain numerous cut up counties (just like the McLennan / Henderson counties district does) or be extra elongated (just like the Wilson / Brazos counties district is). This is likely to be fixable if utilizing a completely interactive map that may let you take a look at modifications simply however doing all of this manually with pen, paper, and a calculator took me an unbelievably very long time to manually take a look at completely different mixtures.

4.) In these counties the place you’ve gotten sufficient folks to make complete districts with their inhabitants, ALL of these districts should be created completely inside the boundaries of these counties. (Harris County, for instance, has sufficient folks for six districts plus leftovers, so, Harris County should absolutely incorporate six districts, and the leftovers should all be used in one different single district. Actually, I needed to cheat somewhat with Harris County, I wanted about 28,000 folks to go along with the Galveston / Beaumont district so, technically, its remaining folks had been cut up between two different districts. My reasoning for that was that Harris will already be in so many districts that much less hurt appeared to be completed by taking these few folks from it reasonably than needlessly shaving these few folks from Brazoria or Newton counties, or some other bordering counties so doing it like I did saved me from creating one more cut up county. I do not get into inner districting in these counties but when every of these districts are shaped round inhabitants facilities, similar with the six districts inside Harris County, for instance, do you suppose that so much may very well be completed to screw over minorities in these counties?

5.) Districts should be created in such a approach as to restrict the variety of counties in every district. (In the Panhandle, for instance, I stretched it south somewhat bit to place Lubbock’s inhabitants there as a result of to make up these numbers utilizing the entire smaller counties round it meant that district was enormous AND moved deeply into what’s the north Texas district.)

6.) As a lot as doable, preserve districts from stretching out to protect pure cultures and points. (Again, with the panhandle, the residents up there all have frequent points that would not essentially coincide with the Wichita Falls space, or the Midland / Odessa area.) (That is the opposite factor about maintaining counties collectively, to acknowledge regional variations in attitudes, issues, commonalities, and many others.)

7.) No county that would have any self-contained districts might use their further folks combined in with one other self-contained county. This primarily impacts the D/FW space. So, Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant, but in addition Harris and Fort Bend Counties, and Travis and Bexar Counties would all have self-contained districts, so their further folks should be used in a district that they might be the unquestioned dominant drive. So, you do not get any folks in Dallas County having to combat with folks in Collin County, for instance, on their points. So, the additional folks in all 4 of these counties had been used in 4 different completely different districts.

8.) Also, the bigger a county’s inhabitants is, (Williamson or Montgomery counties, for instance) the much less I wished to separate them in any respect. Again, I noticed it as enjoying into maintaining an space’s points and voters intact as a lot as doable. This one is particularly a suggestion reasonably than a rule.

9.) I attempted to make use of the present standing of SCotUS and Congresses destruction of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and many others. to shift the apply to at least one that’s uniform and recognizing that completely different areas could have completely different collections of individuals. The panhandle, for instance, and my very own northeast Texas areas are going to vote majority for Republicans nevertheless they’re damaged up, so let’s use current areas to permit them to go the best way the true majority of their folks need.

I actually did not have a look at and even care about ANY components aside from how many individuals stay in a county. In addition, a significant factor that moved me to a perspective of maintaining counties collectively is that it needs to be simple for folks to know what district they stay in and who represents them. That is why no county might be divided between greater than two districts.

In any case, my view is that democracy is a course of, not a outcome. I wished to discover a approach to create a course of that will not be topic to a lot manipulation, so, counties keep intact besides the place there should be splits to get the numbers to even out. I additionally discovered that among the districts, just like the panhandle, ended up with lower than 500 folks distinction from the district sizes in Texas (766,987). In such circumstances, I left issues alone in order to maintain from dividing much more counties with insignificant modifications.

Here are the outcomes I got here up with:

And here’s what my map appears like:

Now, I do not present these counties that are damaged up in any respect as a result of, frankly, I haven’t got the instruments or the talents to do this with out making it appear to be a complicated mess even when what’s attempting to be proven is straightforward. So, use the charts to see the place on the map such divisions are. However, as I mentioned, truly only a few counties are damaged up. For probably the most half, counties are in completely different districts in their entirety. There are additionally 4 districts that would not have the precise variety of folks for the specified district sizes (ie — 766,987). I left these 4 alone as I used to be utilizing a suggestion that if the discrepancy is lower than 500 then the better good was greatest served by maintaining extra counties complete reasonably than breaking apart extra counties for insignificant variations. Personally, I believe all of it got here out fairly effectively.

Want to make a comparability? Well, right here is the map the Republicans got here up with:

What do you suppose? Talk amongst yourselves and let me know.

Thanks,

Rhys

© 2025 (October) & 2026 (March) by Rhys M. Blavier