
Most say partisan redistricting threatens democracy: Survey
Fifty-five percent in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said there is a negative effect on democracy from changing House district maps to secure seats, with 46 percent of Republicans and 71 percent of Democrats saying the same.
California and Texas are going head-to-head in a redistricting fight, with other states evaluating a similar process.
On Wednesday, the Texas state House passed a new set of GOP-leaning congressional lines, placing Republicans another step closer toward adopting a new map that kicked off a redistricting arms race.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who is pushing for redistricting in his own state, appeared to issue a threat to the Lone Star State in a vague post on the social platform X.
'It's on, Texas,' the Golden State governor said in his evening post.
Twenty-seven percent in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they were unsure if there is a negative effect on democracy from changing House district maps to secure seats, and 18 percent said there was a positive effect from doing so.
The same Reuters/Ipsos poll also found President Trump's approval rating stuck at the lowest level of his second term, 40 percent.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted from Aug. 13-18, included 4,446 participants and has a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This Clip Of Sean Hannity Trying To Take Down Gavin Newsom Is Going Viral For His Complete Lack Of Self-Awareness
Sean Hannity's attempted slam of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was irony defined for many of the Fox News host's critics. On Wednesday, Hannity devoted several minutes of his prime-time show to attacking Newsom, who has recently taken to trolling Donald Trump on social media by mimicking the president's bombastic and combative tone. Related: Top Trump ally Hannity denounced Newsom, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, as a 'radical' whose policies had wrecked California and dismissed his Trump impersonations as 'embarrassing.' Then came the line that went viral: 'I have a point. Results matter. A new performative, confrontational style. Maybe it wins you points with the loony, radical base in your party. But America is not going to vote for that record.' You can watch the full clip here: @Acyn / Fox News / Via Related: Critics pounced on the remark, arguing it sounded more like a description of Trump — and Hannity himself — than of the governor. @truthstreamnews / Via @KeysToTheRace / Via Related: @ChefjparkJohn / Via @marysupoppinz/ / Via @JasonPYYC / Via Related: @robfirsching / Via @AllwhichIam / Via This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Also in In the News: Also in In the News: Also in In the News:
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jesse Watters' daddy kink is showing (again), and Gavin Newsom is calling him out
Remember that brief moment in time where Tim Walz made waves by calling Republicans weird? It seems it's time to go back to that, considering the way Fox News host Jesse Watters keeps referring to California governor Gavin Newsom as "daddy." On Wednesday, the official X account for Newsom's press office tweeted a brief compilation of Watters dropping the d-word, alongside the caption, "Jesse, he's just not interested." Watters' obsession with "daddies" is well-documented. He frequently discusses politicians in terms of how daddy he thinks they are, including President Donald Trump, who he believes has "dad strength." He's also claimed Europe calls Trump "daddy," expressed his excitement about "dad" Donald Trump enacting mass deportations, and stated that Democrats "need to run a daddy" for president in 2028, among other weird, if not downright creepy, moments. Most recently, Watters had Florida governor Ron DeSantis on to complain about all the time Newsom allegedly spends on social media mocking Trump rather than doing his job, as if none of them are familiar with the concept of social media managers. For some reason, one of the chyrons across the screen at the time read "Dems Look For Big Daddy Energy." Newsom himself (or, you know, a social media manager) hopped on X Thursday morning to chime in, "Jesse, please stop calling me Daddy. It's disturbing." This followed a Trump-style tweet that Newsom's office is becoming known for that elaborated on the obsession Fox News — and Watters specifically — seems to have developed with Newsom. The whole thing is absolutely absurd, but we live in a political climate where absurdity seems to triumph constantly over anything rational, so if Newsom wants to highlight that through this mimicry, then so be it. Trump's nonsense posts definitely deserve the mockery, and maybe it's about time Watters' daddy kink gets called out, too. This article originally appeared on Pride: Jesse Watters' daddy kink is showing (again), and Gavin Newsom is calling him out RELATED 15 of Gavin Newsom's most brutal roasts of Trump that have the left cackling & MAGA melting down 32 things straight people think are totally gay Fox News host Jesse Watters' hot take on husbands going grocery shopping backfires hilariously


CBS News
26 minutes ago
- CBS News
Newsom signs California redistricting plan that could tilt 5 House seats toward Democrats
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed into law a contentious congressional redistricting plan, as state Democrats seek to counter a Trump-backed effort to add to the GOP's House majority by redrawing Texas' congressional maps. The new map — which still needs to be approved by voters — would shift five of California's Republican U.S. House seats to be more favorable to Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections. The legislation easily passed the Democratic-led Assembly and Senate on Thursday. After Newsom's signature, it will be added to the ballot on Nov. 4 for the voters' final say. That election is likely to be expensive and unpredictable given how quickly the effort has come together and how little time there is between the legislature's actions and voters starting to have their say. California Democrats insisted they had no choice but to undertake the new maps after President Trump intervened in Texas and asked Republican lawmakers to redraw the districts to preserve the GOP's razor-thin majority in the U.S. House. Following Newsom's declaration that he would redraw California's maps, several other states said they would undertake similar efforts. "They fired the first shot, Texas. We wouldn't be here had Texas not done what they just did," Newsom said at a signing ceremony Thursday. "We're neutralizing what occurred [in Texas] and we're giving the American people a fair chance." Although California Republicans have denounced the redistricting plan as a "tit-for-tat strategy," the state's Democrats on Thursday touted that the effort is different from Texas since it will be ultimately approved by the state's voters. "In California, we will do whatever it takes to ensure that voters, not Donald Trump, will decide the direction of this country," said Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. "This is a proud moment in the history of this assembly. Californians, we believe in freedom. We will not let our political system be hijacked by authoritarianism, and today, we give every Californian the power to say no. To say no to Donald Trump's power grab and yes to our people, to our state and to our democracy." The Republican-led Texas House on Wednesday approved the new congressional maps after a two-week delay when Democrats left the state to deny a quorum to bring the measure to the floor. The measure now goes to the Texas Senate, where it is likely to pass. Shortly after the Texas House passed the maps, Newsom posted to social media: "It's on." When Texas first launched its redistricting effort, Newsom had vowed to redraw the Golden State's congressional districts to counter the Lone Star State's plan and neutralize any potential GOP gains. Newsom — who is widely seen as a possible 2028 presidential contender — sarcastically congratulated Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott on X, saying, "you will now go down in history as one of Donald Trump's most loyal lapdogs. Shredding our nation's founding principles. What a legacy." President Trump late Wednesday congratulated Texas Republicans for advancing the new maps, writing on social media that "Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself." He also encouraged GOP-led Indiana and Florida to take on redistricting. The relatively rare mid-decade redistricting gambit comes as both parties prepare to face off in 2026 and has major implications nationwide. Republicans have a narrow majority at the moment, and Democrats winning back three seats in the 2026 midterms could be enough to flip control of the chamber if the lines used in the 2024 election were still in place. Redistricting in red states could change that dynamic significantly however, and with it the impact of the final two years on Mr. Trump's second term in office. Texas and California are the two biggest redistricting battlegrounds, but Mr. Trump has pushed similar efforts in GOP-led Indiana and Florida, and New York Democrats have floated redrawing their House map. The Republican-led state of Missouri could also try and redraw a Democratic district in the coming weeks, and new maps are also expected in Ohio, where a redraw brought about by state law could impact some of the red state's Democratic members of Congress. Earlier this week, former President Barack Obama acknowledged that he was not a fan of partisan gerrymandering but he backed Newsom's redistricting plan anyway at a fundraiser in Martha's Vineyard and on social media, calling it a "smart, measured approach." Less than 24 hours before California's scheduled vote, Newsom joined a press call with Democratic party leaders, urging support for his state's redistricting effort. "This is about taking back our country," Newsom told reporters. "This is about the Democratic Party now punching back forcefully and very intentionally." A draft congressional map unveiled by California Democrats late last week would heavily impact five of the state's nine Republican U.S. House members. It would redraw Reps. Doug LaMalfa and Kevin Kiley's Northern California districts, tweak Rep. David Valadao's district in the Central Valley and rearrange parts of densely populated Southern California, impacting Reps. Ken Calvert and Darrell Issa. And some more competitive Democrat-held districts could be tilted further from the GOP. There's no guarantee that Democrats will win in all five newly recast districts. Democrats hold large majorities in both chambers of California's state legislature. But some legal hurdles still lie ahead, and Republicans in the state have pushed back against the redistricting plans. Unlike Texas, California has an independent redistricting commission that was created by voters earlier this century. To overhaul the current congressional map, a constitutional amendment would need to be passed by a two-thirds vote in California's Assembly and Senate and be approved by voters in the fast-moving fall election. On Wednesday, the California Supreme Court denied a GOP attempt to stop the mid-cycle redistricting. California Republicans had legally challenged Democrats' efforts, claiming the state's constitution gives Californians the right to review new legislation for 30 days. But Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said they "failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time." The GOP legislators who filed the legal challenge told CBS News the ruling is "not the end of this fight," vowing to keep fighting the redistricting plan in the courts. In a phone interview with CBS News on Wednesday, California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a Republican, condemned Newsom's redistricting efforts. "This whole process is illegal from the beginning and violates the current California Constitution," Jones said. "The voters spoke with a loud voice in 2008 and 2010 that they were taking this process out of the politicians' hands and putting the responsibility into an independent commission." Democrats faced a flurry of questions from Republican lawmakers during hearings this week on the alleged lack of transparency in the drafting of these maps and the financial implications of the Nov. 4 special election. "If we're talking about the cost of a special election versus the cost of our democracy or the cost that Californians are already paying to subsidize this corrupt administration, those costs seem well worth paying at this moment," said Democratic state Assemblyman Isaac G. Bryan. Democratic lawmakers and Newsom have repeatedly emphasized that these redistricting efforts would not get rid of the independent commission and that the new maps he's hoping to put in place will be the lines used through the 2030 election. The commission would go back to drawing the state's congressional maps after the 2030 census, according to Newsom, who says this is only being done as a response to Mr. Trump and Texas' redistricting. That notion was rejected by Jones, who said: "Growing up, I was taught two wrongs don't make a right, so no, it is not justified." Anne Bryson contributed to this report.