What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State

On Dec. 6, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Texas, alleging that the state’s new congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit joins a handful of others in arguing that the map intentionally dilutes the political clout of voters of color.

The state’s new map, signed into law in late October by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, creates 24 solid or likely Republican seats, 13 solid or likely Democratic seats and one swing seat (the 15th District) in the Rio Grande Valley. For comparison, Texas’s congressional delegation currently comprises 23 Republicans and 13 Democrats, so this map doesn’t boost Republicans’ gains in the state as much as it protects its incumbents. The map shores up a number of Republicans who currently sit in light-red seats that have been trending toward Democrats, including Reps. John Carter, Dan Crenshaw, Jake Ellzey, Michael McCaul, Troy Nehls, Chip Roy, Van Taylor and Beth Van Duyne. It accomplishes this largely by packing the bluest parts of the Houston, Dallas and Austin suburbs into Rep. Lizzie Pannill Fletcher’s 7th District, Rep. Colin Allred’s 32nd District and the newly created 37th District and conceding these seats to Democrats.

The map also makes the 28th District (currently Rep. Henry Cuellar’s) and 34th District (an open seat currently represented by Rep. Filemon Vela) in the Rio Grande Valley bluer while making Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez’s seat a bit redder (it goes from a D+2 partisan lean to evenly split). Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales’s 23rd District, which was a perennial swing district last decade, has also gone from an R+5 to an R+13 partisan lean, likely putting it out of Democratic reach in all but the bluest of years.

Overall, the plan has an efficiency gap of 15.3 percentage points in Republicans’ favor (going by 2020 presidential results), and its median seat is 12.0 points redder than Texas as a whole going by FiveThirtyEight’s partisan lean, making it even more advantageous for the GOP than the state’s current congressional map.