California will move forward with plans to redraw its congressional map in an effort to counteract possible GOP gains in Texas in next year’s midterm elections.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled plans on Thursday to alter the state’s boundaries to try to flip at least five seats into Democratic control next November — negating the five Republican seats Texas lawmakers hope to gain with their new maps currently under consideration. The plan would require approval from California voters to amend the state’s constitution with a provision to change the congressional map until 2030.
“We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we have got to meet fire with fire. And we’ve got to be held to a higher-level accountability,” Newsom said on Thursday. “We’re doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, ‘Find me five seats.’ We’re doing it in reaction to that act.”
Newsom previously warned about massive changes to the congressional landscape, sending a letter to President Donald Trump on Monday that if he did not “stand down,” the California governor would be “forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps” in the Golden State in retaliation.
Newsom will work with other state legislators to introduce a constitutional amendment circumventing the state’s strict laws that prohibit map changes in the middle of a decade. The governor is expected to release the proposed map by the end of this week, and the state Legislature could meet as early as next week to approve the changes.
The new map would then be voted on during a special election in November and, if approved, would stay in affect until the census is taken again in 2030. After that, the state would return to its current laws that require maps to be drawn by an independent citizen’s commission.
That commission is made up of five Republicans, five Democrats and four voters who are not affiliated with either of the major parties.
“We’re working through a very transparent, temporary and public process,” Newsom said. “We’re putting the maps on the ballot and we’re giving the power to the people. This will be the first redistricting process that’s ever done that.”
The effort to combat Texas will require public approval, and recent polls suggest Newsom has an uphill battle ahead to get the state on board. A recent Politico/Citrin Center/Possibility Lab survey found 64% of voters support keeping the independent commission, compared to just 36% who said state lawmakers should draw the maps.
Currently Republicans representatives hold nine of California’s 52 congressional seats, or 17%, while President Donald Trump won 38% of the vote in the state.
Members of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission who helped redraw the district boundaries in 2020 expressed support for Newsom’s plan on Thursday, with the agreement that the commission will be reinstated in 2030.
“We worked collaboratively across the aisle to move forward something that could be fair and just for Californians and I couldn’t be more proud of the districts in the maps that we have today. They’re competitive, some of the most competitive seats in the nation,” 2020 commission member Sara Sadhwani said. “But these are extraordinary times, and extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.”
“I’m here today to be humble, to set aside the good work of California,” she added. “But I do so with the expectation that this is a one-time occurrence, that this does not subvert the will of the people of California.”
The effort comes as Texas is poised to vote on its newly unveiled map that would create new districts in areas that Trump carried by more than 10 percentage points in the 2024 election. Most of the new districts are in heavily Hispanic areas, a crucial demographic shift that helped secure Trump’s victory in November.
The Texas Legislature was originally scheduled to vote on the map last week, but those efforts have so far been delayed after Democratic state lawmakers fled to blue states such as New York, Illinois and Massachusetts to block any legislative action.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers in Congress have openly called for an end to the redistricting efforts — including one Republican who introduced a bill to ban any changes before next November.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., filed the bill last week to block any new maps from being used in the 2026 midterm elections and nullify any changes that are adopted this year. Kiley introduced the ban in response to possible changes in California, which would likely put him at risk in the Golden State.
Comments