Therefore the gerrymandering as well.
Texas CD-15 extends from the edge of Austin down to Mexico. CD-18 is almost a donut.
It’s still a conservative state overall (I’m not convinced the state as a whole would go blue) but more representative splits would certainly result in a few more D seats than we currently have at least
That listing of counties is pretty incomplete as well.
I’d wager the majority of Collin County, Fort Bend County, Montgomery County, and Denton County are all essentially urban areas as well, even if it’s suburban.
Sure, but Montgomery, Collin, and Denton are all solidly conservative, though perhaps not reactionary as some of rural Texas can be. Fort Bend is a tad more mixed but still conservative overall.
Those aren’t exactly bastions of urban Democratic voters to be suppressed.
I was thinking more urban/rural than Democrat/Republican. There is a large difference between say… Panola County and Collin County in terms of rurality(?), even though politically they may both vote predominantly Republican.
I’m not familiar with Collin and Denton. Montgomery County is pine forests and Trump flags. The RenFest tourists might be suburban, but the residents don’t seem to be. [ETA: Republican landslide pdf]
Fort Bend boasts they’re the most diverse county in the US, with equal parts white/black/latino/asian. And they voted for Beto over Abbot in 2022.
And a large portion of the Woodlands and Conroe. The ExxonMobil campus is just on the other side of the county line in Harris, but that just tells you the area isn’t just the piney woods plus a sprinkling of towns, either.
Collin has Plano and the back half is rural. It’s basically like Fort Bend, where you can’t tell where Dallas ends and Collin County begins.
Denton is pretty much the same but to the northwest of Dallas instead.
That’s my county. It is indeed very diverse but in a localized way. Parts of Katy and Sugar Land/Missouri City/Stafford and their associated Master Plan Community extraterritorial bits (Cinco Ranch and Riverstone) are highly diverse and basically urban and you can’t tell where Houston ends and where either Katy or Stafford begins.
But the other half of the county is very white and very rural.
We did vote Beto over Abbott but it was a close thing. The Sheriff (ultra-conservative and more than a little corrupt taking over for his equally corrupt and ultra-conservative brother who now serves in the US Congress) won handily.
If there were a bit less white nationalism among Republicans, the county would be more solidly conservative. There’s a lot of diversity but it’s the sort that voted against the racism in the R rather than for progressivism in the D.
Collin County is basically the Dallas-area equivalent of what Ft. Bend County or Montgomery County is to Houston. Part tony suburb, part rural area.
Don’t forget about Frisco and Allen. They’re big cities in their own rights now (200k and 100k respectively), even if they’re tony northern suburbs.
Not to mention McKinney, the county seat of Collin County. There are a few small semi-rural communities left in Collin County, but it is definitely mostly tony suburb now. Even Celina, which used to be the archetypal one-horse town up there has grown to nearly 20,000 people.
Why do I suppose that come the election, there will not be a budget set aside to print ahead of time enough ballots to cover the total number of eligible voters in each ward…
Texas leads the way-- shows how to do it!
Texas Republicans once again chose not to give online voter registration bills a hearing this year, making this the fourth legislative session in a row without a debate on the matter.
While eligible voters in more than 40 states and Washington, D.C., can register to vote using smartphones or their laptops, Texans still are looking for stamps to mail in their printed forms.
…There is one exception that has allowed some Texans to register online: A federal judge in 2020 forced Texas to give residents that option when they renew or update their driver licenses using the Texas Department of Public Safety website, after ruling the state was violating the National Voter Registration Act. In the first year and a half of the program, 1.5 million residents used that option, according to the state.
The existing system excludes those who do not have a driver’s license or are applying for a new one, such as residents who recently have moved to Texas.
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My bold.
Hmmm… people who don’t have a driver’s license or who have recently moved to the state… who could they be thinking of…? 
Hell, we don’t want those people votin’ --they’re not Real Texans!
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Republicans now frame online voter registration as an opportunity to commit fraud, said Andrew Hendrickson, government relations coordinator for the ACLU of Texas.“Even though there’s absolutely no evidence of that, and if that was the case, I don’t think you would be seeing 43 states having an online voter registration system,” Hendrickson said.
Nearly 90 percent of Americans have access to online voter registration or same-day registration, making Texas one of the last states to reject modernization, Hendrickson said.
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Hey, Texas is first where it counts! Number of kids without healthcare coverage, maternal and infant mortality, and a new one: we’re at the top in the number of babies born with syphilis! Go Texas!
Just popping in to say that whenever I see the thread title I want to yell, ‘Heeeey… Abbott!’
I don’t know much about Greg Abbott other than he’s a Conservative and the governor of a conservative state. I haven’t followed his outrages. But Bud Abbott often played a schemer and a bully.
I invariably read the title as if it were being intoned as like unto Meet George Jetson…
The New York Times chimes in. Many Texans, including Abbott, will consider this condemnation a great big win.
Gov. Greg Abbott, Republican of Texas, is expected to sign a bill in the next few days …
The bill, recently approved by the Texas House and Senate, would nullify any city ordinance or regulation that conflicts with existing state policy in those crucial areas, and would give private citizens or businesses the right to sue and seek damages if they believe there is a discrepancy between city and state. That means no city could prohibit discrimination against L.G.B.T.Q. employees, as several Texas cities have done. No city could adopt new rules to limit predatory payday-lending practices. No city could restrict overgrown lots, or unsafe festivals, or inadequate waste storage. Cities would even be banned from enacting local worker protections, including requiring water breaks for laborers in the Texas heat, as Dallas, Austin and other cities have done following multiple deaths and injuries.
… the bill is the latest effort by Republicans to rid the state of any policies that conflict with their hard-right agenda — even if those policies are fully supported by voters in those cities, who elect representatives to serve their interests.
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And thinking of the title I “just say no”
This is fun – upset that Dan Patrick and the Texas Senate won’t go along with his preferred way to cut property taxes, Abbott has begun vetoing their bills en masse. He’s said that he may let them resurrect the bills in a future special session (which only he can call) once they pass a property tax bill to his liking.
God, this state’s government is a shit show.
And he did sign a bill dropping annual car inspections. Weirdly, you still have to pay the same amount, but no inspection.
https://www.kxan.com › news › tex…
Texas passes bill eliminating mandatory vehicle inspections
The day after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to veto bills if the Texas House and Senate don’t reach an agreement on property tax cuts by this weekend, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he received a call from a “hopping mad” Houston businessman.
Abbott was prepared to nix a bill the man supported, Patrick said. The governor’s team, the man claimed, had urged him to try to get Patrick to back down in the ongoing feud.
“It’s not a very good image to veto bills for no reason other than he didn’t get the property tax bill he wants,” said Patrick, who leads the Senate and has refused to back down. “I’ve never heard of anything like that. This is crazy.”
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Patrick “never heard of anything like that”??? Give me a break. That is the way Texas politics has always worked.
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The governor had rejected 10 bills as of Thursday. Half are Senate bills, and eight contain the same unusual qualifier: “This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session* only after property tax relief is passed.”On Senate Bill 2493, which would modernize tenant laws, Abbott wrote, “While updating our laws about landlord-tenant relations is important, it is simply not as important as cutting property taxes.” And SB1998 “requires data reporting on property taxes but does nothing to cut property taxes,” he said.
…Abbott has signed the most prominent Republican bills from the session into law, including bans on gender-affirming care for minors and on diversity, equity and inclusion programs for hiring at universities.
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You know. IMPORTANT stuff!
*Special session to be convened at Abbott’s pleasure.
< Abbott > “You peons displease me! I AM YOUR KING! You Must Obey Me!”
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Although SNAP is a federal program that allows families access to food stamps, each state can set different requirements for eligibility. Texas looks at a household’s income but also factors in the value of a household’s cars, known as the vehicle asset test.The current SNAP policy in Texas — which was set in 2001 — disqualified applicants whose primary vehicle was valued at $15,000 or more and had additional vehicles valued at $4,650 or more.
“When I got my five grandkids, I went to apply for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families,” Bristol said. “I was denied because my car was over the income limit. I had no beds, no clothes, I had to run out and get two car seats.”
According to Feeding Texas, a nonprofit food bank network that lobbied for HB 1287, more than 54,000 Texas SNAP applicants were rejected in 2022 due to the value of their vehicles. But some of those families will qualify in September if their primary vehicle is valued under $22,500 and any additional vehicles are valued under $8,700.
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The shitshow continues…
So, they’re supposed to sell the asset that enables them to get to work, but have to work in order to qualify for benefits? Yeah, that sounds about right.