Hundreds gather at Lake Merritt to protest Texas congressional gerrymandering
Hundreds gathered at Lake Merritt on Saturday to protest the proposed redrawing of Texas' congressional districts.
Texas lawmakers are attempting to gerrymander their state, to send more Republicans to Washington ahead of the 2026 election.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed similarly redistricting California to offset the additional Texas Republicans.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Hundreds of Bay Area residents gathered in Oakland on Saturday to push back against President Trump's attempt to gerrymander Texas.
Multiple elected officials, including Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon assembled at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater, and Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, spoke to the crowd of nearly 400 people.
"Trump and his Republican allies are trying to steal the 2026 election by redrawing districts in their favor and attacking our voting rights," Bas said at the event. "This attack on our democracy may have started in Texas, but without immediate action, it can sweep dangerously across our country."
The event featured a 15-foot-tall inflatable chicken with orange hair, meant to represent President Trump, as well as several large, cardboard rotten eggs with the names of Texas politicians — including Senator Ted Cruz and Governor Greg Abbott — involved in the push to redraw the state's maps.
"This unparalleled attack on democracy would not be possible without the Texas Republicans who are answering not to the people, but to one man: Donald Trump," Keith Brown of the Alameda Labor Council said. "California will not sit back and watch the erosion of our democracy."
Indeed, California has responded to the Lone Star State's redrawn congressional map. Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday released a map that showed the proposed redistricting of California's congressional districts.
If approved, the map would add more democratic congressional seats to balance those that would be eliminated by the redrawn Texas map.
Pushing back
The backstory
Texas' lawmakers are considering a new map that would help them send five more Republicans to Washington, but Democrats have so far halted that effort by leaving the state to prevent their GOP colleagues from meeting Trump's demands.
"We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district, all across this country," Newsom said at a Los Angeles press conference on Thursday. "Not just in Texas, but in Missouri, where J.D. Vance went just a week ago, in Indiana, in places like Ohio and places like Florida. We need to stand up, not just in California. Other blue states need to stand up."
There are 435 seats in the U.S. House. Of those, Republicans currently hold a 219-212 majority, with four vacancies. New maps are typically drawn once a decade, after the census is conducted.
Proposed changes
By the numbers
Many states give legislators the power to draw maps but some, including California, rely on an independent, non-partisan commission.
The redrawn map is consistent with the criteria laid out by the California's Citizen Redistricting Commission, and keeps district more compact than the current map, which helps to keep more communities and neighborhoods in the same district.
The new map splits fewer cities than the current map — 57 in the submitted map versus 60 in the current map. The proposed redistricting would leave eight districts untouched and would, in 20 districts, impact fewer than 10% of residents.
The new map will be put forth to voters in a special election, with the California legislature set to take up the issue next week, to call for a vote on Nov. 4.
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