California Gov. Gavin Newsom can count former President Barack Obama in his corner as he gears up for a high-stakes fight over redistricting and partisan gerrymandering.
Texas House Republicans on Wednesday approved a redrawn congressional map designed to give their party a boost in next year’s midterm elections.
The unusual mid-decade adjustment to the state’s congressional districts, sought by President Donald Trump, could help Republicans hold onto the House of Representatives by giving the party five more winnable seats.
Newsom, a Democrat, has proposed to “fight fire with fire” — similarly redrawing California’s congressional districts if Texas Republicans pass their map through the state Senate and sign it into law.
Obama is on board.
“Over the long term, we shouldn’t have political gerrymandering in America, just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas,” he posted on X on Wednesday.
“But since Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House and gerrymandering in the middle of a decade to try and maintain the House despite their unpopular policies, I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this,” Obama continued. “He’s put forward a smart, measured approach in California, designed to address a very particular problem at a very particular moment in time.”
Texas Republicans have been open about their intentions.
“The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward: improve Republican political performance,” state Rep. Todd Hunter, a Republican who wrote the legislation creating the new map, said on the House floor, according to the Associated Press.
Trump has also pushed other Republican-led states to act similarly.
The California map would need to be approved by a two-thirds majority of legislators, then passed by voters in a special election in November.
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