Texas redraws Congressional map — here’s the worst gerrymanders in the US

Texas House Republicans approved a newly gerrymandered congressional map

that they believe will give them five new seats in the House of Representatives

While the focus has been on Texas since the legislature began its special session July 21st

the Princeton Gerrymandering Project makes clear there are unfair maps across the country

After the 2021 redistricting cycle, Princeton published its redistricting report card, which gave five states an F for competitiveness

California, Oregon, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Illinois. Texas received a C in competitiveness

although that score could change with the new map. According to Princeton, a gerrymandered map

produces a majority of districts that are not competitive, effectively guaranteeing one party consistently wins certain districts

and the other never really has a chance. They define a competitive district as one where the candidates

are within seven points of each other. In other words Princeton scoring frowns upon a system where the primary essentially chooses who going to win the general election Take California District 2 as an example Democratic Congressman Jared Huffman beat his Republican opponent 79 to 28

The winner of the Democratic primary, in this case Huffman, knows they're going to glide to victory in November

The Republican in South Carolina District 3 has an equally easy general election

Republican Sherry Biggs won her seat over the Democratic challenger 71.8% to 25.3%

The five states that got an F not only have uncompetitive seats

it means they had many other ways to draw a more competitive map but chose not to

The aim of the latest round of redistricting isn't necessarily to hand more lopsided wins to the ruling party's members

The goal is to maximize the total number of seats held by the respective ruling party

They do so by siphoning off just enough registered party members in neighboring districts

to tip the scales in a competitive district held by the minority party

I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Arrow News. For more reporting, download the SAN app