SACRAMENTO — Ratcheting up the stress within the escalating nationwide battle over management of Congress, the California Legislature on Thursday permitted a November particular election to ask voters to redraw the state’s electoral traces to favor Democrats and thwart President Trump’s far-right coverage agenda.
The poll measure, pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and different state and nationwide Democratic leaders, is the most recent volley in a nationwide political brawl over electoral maps that might alter the end result of the 2026 midterm elections and the steadiness of energy within the U.S. Home of Representatives.
If voters approve the redrawn traces on Nov. 4, Democrats within the Golden State would see the chances tilted additional of their favor, whereas the variety of California Republicans within the Home might be halved.
Newsom initially mentioned that new electoral districts in California would solely take impact if one other state redrew its traces earlier than 2031. However after Texas moved towards approving its personal maps this week that might give the GOP 5 extra Home seats, Democrats stripped the so-called “set off” language from the modification — which means that if voters approve the measure, the brand new traces would take impact it doesn’t matter what.
“They fired the primary shot, Texas,” Newsom mentioned earlier than signing the payments Thursday. “We wouldn’t be right here if Texas had not executed what they only did, if Donald Trump didn’t do what he simply did.”
The poll measure language, which asks California voters to override the facility of the impartial redistricting fee, was permitted by most Democrats within the Meeting and the Senate, the place they maintain supermajorities.
Lawmakers have the facility to position constitutional amendments on the statewide poll with out the approval of the governor. Newsom later signed two payments that fund the particular election and spell out the traces for the brand new congressional districts.
Democrats’ rush to the poll marks a sudden departure from California’s 15-year dedication to impartial redistricting, usually held up because the nation’s gold customary. The state’s voters stripped lawmakers of the facility to attract traces in the course of the Nice Recession and handed that partisan energy to a panel of impartial residents whose names are drawn in a lottery.
The change, Democrats mentioned, was pressured by a unprecedented change in circumstances: After a long time of the US redrawing congressional traces as soon as a decade, Trump and his political crew have leaned on Republican-led states to redraw their district traces earlier than the 2026 midterm elections to assist Republicans retain management of the Home.
“His playbook is an easy one: Bully, threaten, battle, then rig the principles to hold onto energy,” mentioned Meeting Speaker Robert Rivas. “We’re right here as we speak as a result of California is not going to be a bystander to that energy seize. We’re not intimidated, and we’re appearing brazenly, lawfully, with function and resolve, to defend our state and to defend our democracy.”
Republicans within the state Meeting and the state Senate criticized Newsom’s argument that Democrats should “battle fireplace with fireplace,” saying retaliation is a slippery slope that will erode the impartial redistricting course of California voters have chosen twice on the poll field.
“You progress ahead combating fireplace with fireplace, and what occurs? You burn all of it down,” mentioned Meeting Minority Chief James Gallagher (R-Yuba Metropolis). He mentioned Trump was “unsuitable” to push Gov. Greg Abbott to redraw Texas’ traces to learn Republicans, and so was California’s push to pursue the identical technique.
Democratic Meeting member Marc Berman speaks throughout a gathering of the California State Meeting on the California State Capitol on Thursday in Sacramento.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty Pictures)
State Senate Majority Chief Lena Gonzalez (D-Lengthy Seaside), who co-authored the invoice drawing the proposed congressional districts, mentioned Democrats had no alternative however to face up, given the hurt the Trump administration has inflicted on healthcare, training, tariffs and different insurance policies that have an effect on Californians.
“What will we do? Simply sit again and do nothing?” Gonzalez mentioned. “Or will we battle again and supply some likelihood for our Californians to see themselves on this democracy?”
Senate Minority Chief Brian Jones (R-Santee) mentioned the hassle is “a corrupt redistricting scheme to rig California’s elections” that violates the “letter and the spirit of the California Structure.”
“Democrats are speeding this by means of below the guise of urgency,” Jones mentioned. “There isn’t a emergency that justifies this abuse of course of.”
Two Meeting Democrats current on Thursday didn’t vote in favor of the constitutional modification. Jasmeet Bains (D-Delano), who’s working for Congress towards Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) within the San Joaquin Valley, voted no, and Progressive Caucus chair Alex Lee (D-San Jose) didn’t vote. Assemblymember Daybreak Addis (D-Morro Bay) was on bereavement go away.
Democrats will face an uncommon messaging problem with the November poll measure, mentioned Matt Lesenyie, an assistant professor of political science at Cal State Lengthy Seaside.
The opponents of mid-decade redistricting are stressing that the measure would “drawback voters,” he mentioned, which is “wording that Democrats have primed Democrats on, for now two administrations, that democracy is being killed with a thousand cuts.”
“It’s a bizarre, type of up-is-down second,” Lesenyie mentioned.
How did we get right here?
Trump’s political crew started pressuring Abbott and Texas Republicans in early June to redraw the state’s 38 congressional districts in the midst of the last decade — which could be very unusual — to present Republicans a greater shot at maintaining the Home in 2026.
“We’re entitled to 5 extra seats,” Trump later instructed CNBC.
Some Texas Republicans feared that mid-decade redistricting might imperil their very own probabilities of reelection. However inside a month of the White Home floating the thought, Abbott added the brand new congressional traces, which might stack the deck towards as many as 5 Texas Democrats in Congress, to the Legislature’s particular session in July.
By mid-July, Newsom was speaking about California punching again. In an interview with the progressive information website the TN Holler, Newsom mentioned: “These guys, they’re not f—ing round. They’re enjoying by a completely completely different algorithm.”
Democrats in Texas fled the state for practically two weeks, together with some to California, to disclaim Republicans the quorum they wanted to move the brand new traces. Abbott signed civil arrest warrants and levied fines on the 52 absent Democrats whereas they held information conferences in California and Illinois to convey consideration to the battle.
Whereas the Texas drama unfolded, consultants for the marketing campaign arm of Home Democrats in California quietly drew up maps that will additional chop down the variety of Golden State Republicans in Congress. The proposed adjustments would get rid of the district of Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) and dilute the variety of GOP voters in 4 districts represented by Reps. Doug LaMalfa, Kevin Kiley, David Valadao and Darrell Issa.
The Democrats agreed to return to Texas final week and pointed to California’s tit-for-tat effort as one measure of success, saying the Golden State might neutralize any Republican good points in Texas.
Since then, different Republican-led states have begun to ponder redistricting too, together with Indiana, Florida and Missouri. Trump’s political allies are publicly threatening to mount main challenges towards any Indiana Republican who opposes redrawing the traces.
In California, the opposition is shaping up as shortly because the poll measure.
California voters acquired the primary marketing campaign mailer opposing the poll measure a day earlier than the Legislature voted to approve it. A four-page shiny flier, funded by conservative donor and impartial redistricting champion Charlie Munger Jr., warned voters that mid-decade redistricting is “weakening our Democratic course of” and “a menace to California’s landmark election reform.”
Republicans have additionally gone to court docket to attempt to cease the measure, alleging in an emergency petition with the state Supreme Court docket that Democrats violated the state Structure by ramming the payments by means of with out following correct legislative process. The excessive court docket Wednesday rejected the petition.
A wave of authorized challenges is anticipated, not solely in California however in any state that reconfigures congressional districts within the increasing partisan brawl.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) mentioned Thursday morning {that a} lawsuit difficult the California poll measure could be filed in state court docket by Friday night. He mentioned Republicans additionally plan to litigate the title of the poll measure and any voter information supplies that accompany it.
And, he mentioned, if voters approve the brand new traces, “I imagine we could have ample alternative to set the maps apart in federal court docket.”
