US House Redistricting: Oklahoma

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's the point of slicing off part of Oklahoma county then tacking on those rural counties to the east?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The OKC metro doesn't really extend out far in that direction. The northern part of Pottawatomie could probably be considered OKC exurbs but in Seminole you got a bunch of rural towns in an county with less than 40 people per square mile.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

So as Lewis raised earlier, is it possible to draw an Obama district in Oklahoma?

Yes actually. This is 51.3% Obama:



Also 56.6% white VAP (17.3% black and 14.7% Hispanic.)

Actually assuming that Hispanic turnout in Oklahoma is really bad (which seems likely since it doesn't have much of an established Hispanic population like further west or in Texas), some number crunching shows that Obama probably got around 40% of the white vote in this district, which considering it's Oklahoma is fairly impressive. Oklahoma doesn't have any actual white liberal areas like Georgia, Texas, Louisiana and northern Florida do, but it does have some areas where white liberals are not all but nonexistant unlike Mississippi and Alabama for instance.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Norman isn't a white liberal area? Then how do we explain its voting patterns?

78.9% white VAP, 53.3% McCain. Definitely not a white liberal area, just not as radically conservative as the rest of the state.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Oh the area around the University of Oklahoma! Yeah I guess that would apply, funny I missed it as it's my map above. But the rest of Norman is just standard Republican OKC suburbia, though the city limits are quite large area-wise, I bet most of those Republican areas have little to do with the actual university. It might be enough for a white liberal State House seat though.

Yep, I can draw a 57.7% Obama seat that's 76.9% white around the U of O. It's also possible to draw an only 51% McCain seat nearby, split it differently and you can get two white Obama seats.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

BTW Lewis I'm guessing you aren't using the City/Town Lines checkbox. Not only does it give you the city borders it also points out universities apparently (never noticed that until now.)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Is it possible to draw an Obama seat in West Virginia? I doubt it is without splitting counties, and even with county splits it'd be tricky. Arkansas can't be done without county splits either, though you could with them (it'd be as ugly as this Oklahoma seat though.)

My district also went to Stillwater (Oklahoma State University), the black areas in Lawton, and a few odd black enclaves in some rural areas.