{"id":5749,"date":"2025-10-15T10:07:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/5749\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T10:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T10:07:15","slug":"what-ca-gop-says-about-texas-in-fight-over-newsom-gerrymander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/5749\/","title":{"rendered":"What CA GOP says about Texas in fight over Newsom gerrymander"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeanne Kuang<\/a> and Maya C. Miller<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\""A\"
\n\t\t\t\tRepublican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio addresses the media during a press conference at the State Capitol in Sacramento on the current national redistricting battle between Democrats and Republicans on Aug. 18, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

California Republicans have a simple rebuttal when Democrats blame Texas<\/a> for starting the congressional gerrymandering arms race: two wrongs don\u2019t make a right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That means they have to acknowledge both wrongs \u2014 a move that puts them at odds with their party leader, President Donald Trump<\/a>, who wants the GOP to redraw congressional districts in red states to bolster its chances of retaining a majority in Congress next fall.<\/p>\n

In Texas, Trump has said he\u2019s \u201centitled\u201d to five additional GOP House seats. Those maneuvers sparked California\u2019s retaliatory effort<\/a>, which Democratic lawmakers today are expected to place on the ballot for a special election in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The California maps, backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a>, would offset the Texas map by tilting five Republican-held congressional districts toward Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven’t heard a single Republican in the state of California, who’s in office in the state Legislature, defend Texas,\u201d said Assemblyman Carl DeMaio<\/a>, Republican of San Diego and an unabashed Trump supporter. \u201cGerrymandering is wrong no matter who’s doing it, whether it’s done by a red state or a blue state. Politicians manipulating the lines of their districts, it’s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeMaio, along with Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher, on Monday introduced a resolution calling on Congress to propose a constitutional amendment requiring all states to use a nonpartisan commission for redistricting<\/a>, as California\u2019s constitution has required since voters passed a ballot measure creating that process in 2010. All GOP Assemblymembers have signed on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen does it stop?\u201d said Sen. Tony Strickland, a Huntington Beach Republican, who warned that a gerrymandering race to the bottom would result in a \u201cdestructive country\u201d and \u201cchaos\u201d by encouraging redistricting every two years. Instead, he said all states should adopt California\u2019s model, where maps are drawn every 10 years by an independent citizens redistricting commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have currently right now should be the model and the gold standard for the rest of the country to follow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was among several California Republicans who this week sued the state<\/a> over Newsom\u2019s rush to put his ballot measure before voters. The California Supreme Court late Wednesday rejected their complaint<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The independently drawn districts, which resulted in Democrats winning 43 of the state’s 52 seats, have also drawn criticism from Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who have said the maps are unfairly tilted against Republicans. <\/p>\n

Researchers have found the maps give Democrats a slight advantage by some measures but are competitive on other ones.<\/p>\n

What Republicans in Congress say<\/p>\n

Several California Republicans in Congress have also called for an end to the redistricting wars. Their motivations include preserving voter representation, as well as keeping their seats.<\/p>\n

Rep. Kevin Kiley, a Rocklin Republican, introduced a bill in Congress that would ban mid-decade redistricting nationwide \u2014 effectively a detente among the states. Kiley\u2019s sprawling 3rd congressional district, which stretches nearly 500 miles through the conservative-leaning eastern Sierra region, would become a much smaller one that includes more liberal suburbs of Sacramento under the Democrats\u2019 plan.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, when House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, criticized Newsom\u2019s map efforts, Kiley wrote on social media demanding his bill be brought to the floor \u2013 a long shot at best. It would mean undoing Trump\u2019s plans for Texas and weakening the Republicans\u2019 chance of holding on to power in Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Speaker, these are nice words but we need action,\u201d Kiley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\""Recall\"Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley would be at a disadvantage if California voters approve Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to redraw the state’s congressional districts. Here, he speaks at a press conference in Sacramento on Aug. 24, 2021. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters<\/p>\n

Republican Reps. Doug LaMalfa<\/a> of Oroville and Rep. Jay Obernolte of Big Bear Lake have also spoken against mid-decade redistricting in California and other states, saying the practice creates voter distrust.<\/p>\n

Matt Rexroad, a GOP consultant and redistricting specialist, said California Republicans are right to push for independent redistricting nationwide and to oppose gerrymandering in both blue and red states. He called the redistricting wars \u201ca horrible idea for everyone,\u201d for both principled reasons and raw numerical ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s map would not only draw out five Republican seats but also eliminate three competitive districts held by Democrats in Southern California. Rexroad isn\u2019t convinced Republicans can win the seats in Texas under their new maps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to the reasons (for independent redistricting), I think it\u2019s a bad trade,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other Republicans in California have been more cautious to openly criticize the Trump-backed efforts in Texas. A spokesperson for Rep. Young Kim said the Orange County congresswoman viewed Newsom\u2019s plan as an \u201cunconstitutional power grab\u201d and believed he should \u201cfocus on addressing crises facing Californians instead of disenfranchising voters and positioning himself for a presidential run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for Republican Reps. Tom McClintock, David Valadao, Darrell Issa, Ken Calvert and Vince Fong did not respond to questions from CalMatters in time for publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newsom vs. Trump<\/p>\n

Some GOP state lawmakers have demurred when asked if they would call on Trump directly to back down from redistricting in Texas \u2014 a move that California Democrats have said would prompt them to abandon their gerrymandering effort \u2014 or deflected blame in Texas to civil rights groups that sued over the current map, which gives Republicans 25 safe seats and two competitive ones, and Democrats 11 safe seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As that case wound its way through the federal courts, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote Texas in July saying it needed to redraw its congressional maps \u2014 giving Gov. Greg Abbott justification <\/a>to convene a special legislative session for that purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been a part of those conversations,\u201d state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a San Diego Republican, said when asked if Trump should also back down from new maps in Texas. \u201cI\u2019m not an expert on Texas law or the Texas constitution or their legislature. I\u2019m concentrating on California.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Senate elections committee on Tuesday, Democrat Tom Umberg needled Republican Steven Choi for saying California was wrongly following the \u201csame condemnable actions\u201d of other states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re condemning what they’re doing in Texas, I assume that you condemn the president of the United States,\u201d Umberg, of Santa Ana, said. \u201cIt\u2019s a bold move for a Republican \u2026 so I congratulate you for your courage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Choi, of Irvine, said he was only using the word \u201ccondemn\u201d because Democrats had.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I meant was, let\u2019s don\u2019t become the bad ones or part of the bad actors, if you are condemning them,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t criticize or evaluate (Texans\u2019) actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether bipartisan criticism on California Republicans\u2019 part will help or hurt them may well be moot. The campaign over the GOP seats, Rexroad said, will ultimately come down to a more basic question.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what sort of strategy they can come up with, because the governor\u2019s strategy is clear,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018Choose me, or choose Trump.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jeanne Kuang and Maya C. Miller, CalMatters Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio addresses the media during a press…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4480,7,1708,9,8,6198,457,3478,1649],"class_list":["post-5749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ballot-measure","tag-california","tag-california-elections","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-republicans","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-legislator-card","tag-u-s-congress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}