States are redrawing districts but among the new maps Texas’s stands out as perhaps the worst gerrymander. In his article by Nathaniel Rakich and Tony Chow published by Five Thirty Eight, Rakich, a Senior elections analyst explains why several advocacy groups have argued that Texas’s new congressional map discriminates against people of color. He also breaks down what this gerrymander might mean for the 2022 midterms. Here is an excerpt:

Last year, Texas was one of the first states to redraw its congressional districts with updated population numbers from the 2020 census. Most states have now completed that process, but Texas’s remap still arguably wins “best in show” for the most potent gerrymander in the country.

One way of measuring a map’s partisan bias is a statistic called efficiency gap. This is a bit wonky, but basically it quantifies which party is more efficient at turning votes into seats. For example, Texas’s new congressional map has an efficiency gap of R+15, which means Republicans should be expected to win 15 percent more seats under this map than under a perfectly fair one.

And because Texas is so huge, that’s a ton of seats! Fifteen percent of Texas’s 38 congressional districts comes out to almost six extra U.S. House seats for Republicans. That’s by far the biggest advantage for any party in any state that has finished redistricting. I mean, if gerrymandering were tequila, this would be some really strong stuff.

Read the full article here.