More than people realize. Between the Civil War and this century, the Texas delegation to the US House of Representatives was Majority-Democrat. We had a Democratic governor just 3 Governors ago.

But in 2003 the Texas legislature went majority-Republican for the first time in over a century, and the first thing they did was massively gerrymander the state just a year after it had been redistricted for the 2000 census.

In the 2002 election, 17 Democrats and 15 Republicans were elected to the US House. Following the redistricting, the 2004 election had 21 Republicans and 11 Republicans elected to the House.

With a single map change they went from a minority to a 2:1 majority.

Same is true for Georgia

Texas is also a voter apathy state. A lot of the apathy comes from gerrymandering, which I’d call a form of voter suppression, so your point still stands.

Also reminder for every state except Maine and Nebraska: your voting district has NO effect on who gets the electoral college vote for your state. Even if your state is gerrymandered to all hell and there’s no chance your district will go blue, that has literally zero affect on whether your vote is counted for president.

So go vote, even if it’s hopeless for the local races. Your vote can help flip a state!

Yeah, I had a 5 minute wait to vote in my (majority red) area. 30 minutes away in (majority blue) Dallas, wait times were in the hours, because they keep closing polling locations in blue areas.