Go Ahead and Mess With Texas

An obscure provision of Texas statehood gives it the right to split into five smaller states, writes Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com. He outlines the potential new entities:

1. New Texas: Centered on Austin, as populous as Kentucky, and split down the middle politically—city vs. suburbs.

2. Trinity: Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington anchor the richest new state. It's solidly Republican, having favored McCain over Obama, 58% to 42%.
3. Gulfland: Running from Louisiana to the Rio Grande, Houston's home state would be just a hair more liberal than Trinity.
4. Plainland: Encompassing the state’s prairies, solid-red Plainland might be the most conservative state in the entire country.
5. El Norte: El Norte, running along the Rio Grande valley, would be overwhelmingly Hispanic, deeply impoverished, and about 65% Democratic.

(More Texas stories.)