{"id":83519,"date":"2025-12-06T01:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T01:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/83519\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T01:01:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T01:01:06","slug":"darrell-issa-decides-to-stay-in-california-after-redistricting-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/83519\/","title":{"rendered":"Darrell Issa decides to stay in California after redistricting \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Rep. Darrell Issa says he was asked by Texas colleagues to consider moving to Dallas to run for Congress<\/a> after lawmakers in both states created a midterm scramble by redrawing congressional districts.<\/p>\n

But in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Issa explained why he\u2019s staying put \u2014 and urged fellow California Republicans facing tough new districts to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not giving up on California, and hopefully none of my colleagues that have been drawn into tough districts are going to give up. I\u2019m hoping they all run and preferably not against each other,\u201d Issa told the AP by phone.<\/p>\n

California Republican Reps. Ken Calvert and Young Kim have already announced they will run against each other in a new district that includes parts of Riverside and Orange counties, combining some of their existing districts. Republican Reps. Doug LaMalfa and Kevin Kiley, who were also drawn into more difficult districts, have said they plan to run for reelection.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump sparked the nationwide redistricting battle by urging Republicans in Texas to redraw their congressional lines with the hopes of picking up five more seats. California Democrats responded by creating new maps designed to gain five seats for their own party, an effort approved by voters. Other states have since followed, but federal courts have blocked or altered some plans. <\/p>\n

New congressional maps are typically drawn once a decade after the Census comes out. The next maps are due to be created in time for the 2032 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that redrawing districts in between censuses is inherently unconstitutional,\u201d said Issa, who refrained from criticizing Trump, his close ally, for pushing the effort. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis comes after voters approved new California congressional maps that make Issa’s district \u2014 the 48th \u2014 more Democratic. NBC 7 political reporter Joey Safchik explains.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Facing tougher reelection odds, Issa said the Texas delegation approached him, noting that some members \u201csaw merit in almost the poetic justice of \u2018We\u2019ve created additional seats, we need to fill them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of respect, you don\u2019t just blow off your colleagues. You say, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll, you know, I\u2019ll give it due consideration,\u2019\u201d Issa added.<\/p>\n

Issa was eyeing Texas\u2019 32nd District, which is northeast of Dallas. While a number of candidates have filed to run for the seat, none of them is as high-profile as Issa. <\/p>\n

Liz Gover, a precinct chair for the Dallas County Republican Party, said earlier this week that she had a favorable view of Issa as a California congressman but noted he doesn\u2019t live in Texas and other candidates are seeking the seat. She is backing Republican Darrell Day in the district.<\/p>\n

The National Republican Congressional Committee did not provide comment. <\/p>\n

In the end, Issa opted to stay in his seat, citing his \u201cpretty deep\u201d roots in California. Asked whether Trump had asked him to remain in the seat, Issa said he speaks to \u201cboth the president and other people of the White House pretty regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no, nobody, you know, said \u2018Or else,\u2019 or anything like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Issa\u2019s decision to stay in California is a win for Republicans, ensuring an incumbent will contest the now-battleground seat in San Diego County. But it doesn’t change things in Texas, where redistricting and a number of retirements have created openings. Monday is the filing deadline for Texas candidates.<\/p>\n

Issa, referring to the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve all been encouraged by Richard Hudson and, you know, our own team, that incumbency has an advantage. Please consider not retiring, please consider not doing anything that would make it hard for us to hold our majority in the midterm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Rep. Darrell Issa says he was asked by Texas colleagues to consider moving to Dallas to run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[13,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-83519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-politics","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83519","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=83519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}