I recently had a conversation with someone who said the VRA was outdated and communities of interest only work to help the Democratic party. So I decided to redistrict Texas in manner that is purely partisan, one which ignores the VRA and communities of interest. A hyperly partisan example of what could happen if the conservatives overturn the VRA and Democrats win back Texas on all levels. Of course if the Democrats won back Texas many more Democratic districts could be made due to shifts in the state which are necessary for those victories. The population deviation for each district is less than +/- 1000.
I am only listing the VAP of each district unless it may impact the outcome of an election in the future, however take note every single district is trending towards the minority population. Because the 2004 Presidential elections aren't available in DRA I calculated the PVI with the 2008 numbers. I think the 2008 numbers may be more accurate than people think because Texas had been the home state of George W Bush and that favorite son status probably shifted Texas overall a few points to the right in 2004 and 2000. Generally speaking I used 59% Obama as a cut off for a Safe D district (with one exception) because Lloyd Dogget's (current CD-10) district voted 59% for Obama and that appears to be a safe district, likewise the 53% Obama district held by Blake Farenthold elected him with just a few hundred votes in 2010. All the districts are contiguous and not with that "point touch" contiguity because I can not stand that.
The presence of 18 Obama districts ranging from 59.0% to 64.3% leads each Republican vote sink to have blood red PVIs ranging from R+20 to R+33, seven of the most Republican districts in the country would be in Texas. Communities of interest need not apply here. Due to the nature of the districts the common geographic terms of West Texas, North Texas, Central Texas, etc tend to break down. I tried my best to describe each district accurately.
In case you are unfamiliar with the acronyms
VRA = Voting Rights Act
VAP = Voting Age Population (those who are 18 years and older)
DRA = Daves Redistricting Application (the program this map was created on)
PVI = Partisan Voting Index (how a district leans relative to the country as a whole, so D+7 means a district votes 7 percentage points more Democratic on average than the U.S. as a whole)
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