Texas Democrats are in a much stronger position than you think

[Quixote1818]

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[Bluetus]

1. Please provide a summary when you post a video

Last edited Sun Aug 24, 2025, 09:52 AM - Edit history (1)

I listened to about a minute of this thing, and it seems like this guy spends 13 minutes talking about 5 districts. Well, OK, but that doesn't deserve 13 minutes. And it ignores a fundamental axiom of gerrymandering.

Repeat after me:

When districts are already heavily gerrymandered, any attempt to gerrymander further, necessarily means that the cheaters weaken their position in "solid" districts.

This is because Gerrymandering means trying to squeeze more of the opponents' votes into a smaller number of sacrificial districts. When districts are already gerrymandered, it is quite difficult to squeeze them tighter, and by trying to create more districts for yourself, you are lowering your margin of error. In the ideal world, you would like to create a minimum number of 90% Dem districts and a maximum number of 60% GOP districts.

90% districts almost never happen, so they might have to target 55% districts for GOP candidates. In a normal election, that might work. But this could be a reactionary election that is hard on GOP incumbents, especially if inflation continues at its current level and we head into stagflation. In that case, with good candidates in "GOP districts" it might be possible to win some of those "safe" GOP districts, in addition to the 5 this video talks about. I hope people aren't looking only at those 5.

[NJCher]

2. That was helpful, bluetus

Thanks.

[Bluetus]

5. This guy is saying the same thing

in a bit more depth. In his case, he seems to be writing off the 5 targeted districts (which I don't think we should), but says there are 10 other districts that now would be in play if we can run good candidates with good campaigns.

[Quixote1818]

3. Nothing on DU says to post a summary and many of us post from our phones. I'm not going to write out a book

pecking at my phone because someone is too lazy to watch a few minutes of a video.

[Bluetus]

4. It is a matter of common courtesy and respect for others' time.

and your phone should allow you to dictate a few sentences without having to type anything.