Gavin Newsom asks Donald Trump to block red state redistricting

Miami Herald

8 hours ago

Gov. Gavin Newsom asked President Donald Trump to order Texas and other red states to abandon their efforts to redraw congressional boundaries, calling it an attempt to 'rig' the 2026 midterms and an 'affront to American democracy.'
In a letter sent to the White House on Monday, Newsom said his sometime political opponent was 'playing with fire' after asking Texas Republicans last month to redistrict their congressional lines to help the GOP maintain its razor-thin House majority in next year's midterms. Last week, Trump told CNBC that he was 'entitled' to at least five more seats in Texas because he captured 56% of the state in 2024.
'You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make,' Newsom wrote. 'If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states. But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.'
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. Newsom previously said he would not move forward if the Texas Legislature abandon its redistricting efforts.
Texas's push to gerrymander districts outside of a Census count has now spread to other red states like Indiana and Missouri. Texas state Democrats fled the state to break the Republicans' quorum, defying legal threats and arrest warrants to seek refuge in Sacramento, Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts.
Democrats — led by Newsom — have also begun trying to redraw their own districts, while portraying their efforts as a reaction to the GOP. Good governance groups have protested redistricting as a polarizing arms race, while Newsom and others have framed Trump's request as a blatant quid pro quo that demands action.
'They're (Republicans) attempting to change the map. They know that they're gonna lose in 2026, the Congress, and so they're trying to steal seats,' Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday. 'The violation of people's voting rights is what Texas is attempting to do. That's what's wrong with their efforts right now, and the fact that the president of the United States knows it, and nevertheless is, asking them to do it, that's what's wrong with what we're seeing right now. Democracy is at stake.'
While Texas Democrats remain defiant, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would continue to call special sessions and fine them to force their return. A draft map Texas Republicans released Wednesday would split four Democratic districts in Austin, Dallas, Houston and South Texas, and reshape a Central Texas district that was created to comply with a court order protecting voters of color from disenfranchisement.
Newsom has asked the California Legislature to approve an amendment setting a special Nov. 4 election, where voters would approve new congressional boundaries. The map would be in effect for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections, and revert power back to the independent Citizen Redistricting Commission following the 2030 census.
Democratic lawmakers have tentatively approved a version that could shift more liberal voters into five districts currently held by Republican lawmakers. That would reduce the number of Republicans in California's 52-member congressional delegation from 9 to 4.