Here is the Texas Tribune article in question.
If he was one of the congress critters that ran away to DC then he has no leg to stand on when protesting for federalism.
As for the redistricting I'm going to admit, a number of the districts in Dallas and Houston are starting to look a little silly, but otherwise the rest of the state looks fine. The important line in the article is that 95% of Texas' population growth came from non-white demographics meaning that you couldn't swing a dead cat and not "discriminate" against a minority.
On the surface its a blatant Republican power grab, but there's important data that I'm missing about actual population weight. As it is the redistricting actually increases the number of heavily democratic districts from 40 to 46 while shrinking Republican strongholds from 50 to 46 while increasing the nominal number of Republican distracts from 76 to 86.
The means test for this comes next year. If republicans only perform in their newly cut out districts then this is clearly a partisan play. If they get more or less then in my mind it works out fine. Beyond that I struggle to sympathize with Democrats when they get the end of the stick. Its a two-way game and lets not pretend that things would be an iota different if the boots were reversed.
I won't miss the three imperiled Democrats:
Lee is a generic progressive carpetbagger from New York and has been in office since '95. She should have been shuffled out a decade ago just due to age if nothing else.
Green is a craven, bite biting little asshole that, shock of shocks, is also a carpetbagger, from New Orleans this time. He pulled a Californian and moved to Texas to start an economic career but only worked for four years before going into politics. I'm sure he was
real sincere about that job and wasn't just laundering his bona fides. He's been a representative since 2005 and was the JoP for Harris county for 26 years before that. I think 43 years in politics is enough and he should fuck off and enjoy his hard earned Chinese money.
Garcia meanwhile is a never-was who is mercifully actually from Texas. Like the others she's a lifelong politician, though I'll give her props for doing it the hard way and working her way up through the municipal and county court systems.
All of them have platforms that wouldn't look out of place in downtown Manhattan save Lee who at least mouths words about border security and immigration reform. So no, they can all fuck off and enjoy the fat stacks of California (and in Green's case Chinese) cash they've been paid to fuck with my home.