{"id":59683,"date":"2025-08-05T07:55:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59683\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T07:55:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T07:55:18","slug":"texas-redistricting-move-would-trigger-new-california-maps-newsom-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59683\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas redistricting move would ‘trigger’ new California maps, Newsom says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A last-ditch effort by California Democrats to redraw the state\u2019s congressional map for the 2026 election, countering a similar push by Texas Republicans<\/a>, is now up against the clock.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that Democrats are moving forward with a plan to put a rare mid-decade redistricting plan before voters on Nov. 4<\/a>. But state lawmakers will craft a \u201ctrigger,\u201d he said, meaning California voters would only vote on the measure if Texas moved forward with its own plans to redraw Congressional boundaries to add five more Republican seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cause and effect, triggered on the basis of what occurs or doesn\u2019t occur in Texas,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cI hope they do the right thing, and if they do, then there\u2019ll be no cause for us to have to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers in Texas on Monday left the state to deprive Republicans of the quorum needed to pass the new maps. Republican lawmakers voted 85 to 6 to send state troopers to arrest them<\/a> and bring them back to the Capitol, a move that is largely symbolic, since the lawmakers won\u2019t face criminal or civil charges.<\/p>\n

The outcome of the dueling efforts between Texas and California could determine which party controls the House of Representatives<\/a> after the 2026 midterm elections, which Democrats see as the last bulwark to President Trump\u2019s actions in his second term. Trump has pushed Republicans to add more GOP seats in Texas, hoping to stave off a midterm defeat.<\/p>\n

Democrats hold 43 of California\u2019s 52 congressional seats. Early discussions among California politicians and strategists suggest that redrawn lines could shore up some vulnerable incumbent Democrats by making their purple districts more blue, while forcing five or six of the state\u2019s nine Republican members into tougher reelection fights. <\/p>\n

But nothing official can be done until state lawmakers return from recess to Sacramento on Aug. 18. <\/p>\n

Democrats, who hold a supermajority in the Legislature, would have less than a month to draw a new map, hold hearings and negotiate the language of a bill calling for the special November election, leaving just enough time for voter guides to be mailed and ballots to be printed.<\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers and operatives said Monday that the timeline is doable, but they would have to act quickly.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s Democratic congressional delegation expressed consensus during a video meeting Monday with moving forward with a ballot measure that would allow mid-decade redistricting only if another state moves forward with it, according to a person familiar with the virtual meeting, and that the change would be temporary. They expressed their support for the independent commission.<\/p>\n

California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas said the Democratic caucus met Sunday night \u201cto discuss the urgent threat of a continued, blatant Trumpian power grab \u2014 a coordinated effort to undermine our democracy and silence Californians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats in the California Senate and Assembly held separate meetings to discuss redistricting. David Binder, a pollster who works with Newsom, presented internal polling that showed tepid early support among voters for temporarily changing state laws to allow the Legislature to draw new maps for elections in 2026, 2028 and 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur voters must be empowered to push back,\u201d Rivas said. \u201cCalifornia has never backed down \u2014 and we won\u2019t start now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas Democrats resist<\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers\u2019 exodus from Austin on Monday denied Republicans the quorum necessary to proceed with a vote on a redrawn state map that could net Republicans five congressional seats. <\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers balked at threats from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The Texas House Democratic Caucus put out a statement riffing on a slogan made famous during the Texas Revolution: \u201cCome and take it.\u201d One member of the caucus noted that being absent was not a crime and that Texas warrants can\u2019t be served in Illinois or New York, where many lawmakers have gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no felony in the Texas penal code for what he says,\u201d said Rep. Jolanda Jones, a Democrat. \u201cHe\u2019s trying to get soundbites, and he has no legal mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Texas House Republican speaker, Dustin Burrows, said that Democrats leaving does not \u201cstop this House from doing its work. It only delays it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Abbott\u2019s legal options to get his redistricting bill passed, by expelling Democrats or compelling their return, appear narrow, likely forcing the governor\u2019s office to make challenges in courtrooms based in Democratic districts. Abbott has until the end of the year to secure new maps for them to be used in the state\u2019s March 3 primaries.<\/p>\n

At a news conference last week in Sacramento, Newsom compared Trump\u2019s pressure on Abbott to add five Republican congressional seats as akin to his efforts to \u201cfind\u201d 12,000 votes to win Georgia<\/a> after the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here to eliminate the commission,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to provide a pathway in \u201926, \u201928 and in 2030 for congressional maps on the basis of a response to the rigging of the system by the president of the United States. It won\u2019t just happen in Texas. I imagine he\u2019s making similar calls all across this country. It\u2019s a big deal. I don\u2019t think it gets much bigger.\u201d <\/p>\n

Escalation on a deadline<\/p>\n

For decades, redrawing California\u2019s electoral maps amounted to political warfare. In 1971, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan vetoed a redistricting plan that he called \u201ca mockery of good government.\u201d The California Supreme Court ultimately drew the lines, and did so again in 1991, when then-Gov. Pete Wilson rejected maps drawn by Democrats.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s state lawmakers last drew their own district lines in 2001, after members of both parties signed off on a plan drawn up to protect incumbents.<\/p>\n

In 2008, California voters stripped state lawmakers of the power to draw their own districts by passing Proposition 11, which created an independent redistricting commission. Two years later, voters handed the power to redraw congressional district maps to the same panel by passing Proposition 20. That group drew the lines before the 2012 elections, and again after the 2020 census.<\/p>\n

California set the date for its last statewide special election \u2014 the 2021 attempted recall of Newsom \u2014 75 days in advance. County election officials would need at least that much time to find voting locations and prepare ballots for overseas and military voters, which must be mailed 45 days before election day, one elections official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need at least a similar timeline and calendar to what took place in 2021 for the gubernatorial recall election,\u201d said Dean Logan, the top elections official in Los Angeles County. <\/p>\n

Similarly, he said, counties will \u201cneed the funding provided upfront by the state to conduct this election, and the funding to do the redistricting associated with it, because counties are not prepared financially.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2021 recall election cost California taxpayers about $200 million<\/a>. The preliminary estimate for Los Angeles County to administer the redistricting election is about $60 million.<\/p>\n

National fight over state lines<\/p>\n

Republican strategist Jon Fleischman, former executive director of the California Republican Party, said Republicans nationally need to take state Democrats\u2019 efforts to redraw the maps seriously \u2014 by pulling out their checkbooks.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur statewide Republican fundraising has atrophied because it has been over a generation since we had a viable statewide candidate in California,\u201d he said. \u201cThe kind of money that it would take to battle this \u2014 it would have to be national funding effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Texas prompted California Democrats to take action, Fleischman said, the issue has enough momentum here that it ultimately doesn\u2019t matter what Texas does.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Gavin Newsom places this on the ballot, it means he\u2019s already done his polling and has figured out that it will pass because he cares more running for president that redistricting in California,\u201d Fleischman said. \u201cAnd he knows he can\u2019t afford to make this play and lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who championed the ballot measure that created the independent redistricting commission, has not weighed in on the mid-decade redistricting efforts in Texas and California. But a spokesperson for the former governor made clear that he vehemently opposes both<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since leaving office, Schwarzenegger has fought for independent map-drawing across the nation. Redistricting is among the political reforms that are the focus of the Schwarzenegger Institute at USC.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis take on all of this is everyone learned in preschool or kindergarten that two wrongs don\u2019t make a right. He thinks gerrymandering is evil,\u201d said Daniel Ketchell, a spokesperson for Schwarzenegger. \u201cIt takes power from the people and gives it to politicians. He thinks it\u2019s evil, no matter where they do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilner reported from Washington, Nelson and Mehta from Los Angeles and Luna from Sacramento.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A last-ditch effort by California Democrats to redraw the state\u2019s congressional map for the 2026 election, countering a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,18054,31355,44712,44713,16323,13961,23600,44715,3,39153,16592,13109,44714,44709,44710,21,19,22,20,25,24,44711],"class_list":["post-59683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-ballot","tag-california-democrats","tag-california-redistricting","tag-democratic-lawmaker","tag-effort","tag-election","tag-monday","tag-new-map","tag-news","tag-newsom","tag-sacramento","tag-state","tag-state-lawmaker","tag-texas-map","tag-texas-republicans","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-voter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}