California Gov. Gavin Newsom announces special election to re-draw maps
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that his state would hold a special election Nov. 4 to ask voters to approve a mid-decade redistricting plan.
Newsom made the announcement after criticizing President Donald Trump and Texas Republicans for intending to redraw that state's congressional map ahead of the 2026 elections to create more Republican-leaning congressional districts. Redistricting efforts are also ongoing in Florida and Ohio that could benefit Republicans. Indiana and Missouri are also Republican-controlled states discussing redistricting.
Altogether, those efforts could yield Republicans nine or more additional seats to bolster their House 219-212 majority in advance of an election that may favor the Democrats, as Trump's approval rating sags.
California has an independent redistricting commission that is designed to limit partisan influence on the map-drawing process, but Newsom said voters could approve a measure to allow a new process to draw maps that would go into effect for House elections in 2026, 2028, and 2030, before ceding power back to the commission to draw maps ahead of 2032.
"We will affirm our commitment to the state independent redistricting after the 2030 census, but we're asking the voters for their consensus to do mid-decade redistricting," Newsom said. He did not say how many seats he is seeking to flip from Republican-leaning to Democratic-leaning.
He called on Congress to pass a national law that creates a national redistricting commission to effectively end partisan gerrymandering nationwide, and blamed Republicans in Congress for not backing such a proposal in the past.
Christian Martinez, a regional press secretary for the Republicans' congressional campaign arm, criticized Newsom's announcement on social media as a "stunt" that "has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power."
A longtime Democratic stronghold, California is the most populous state in the union and the only state with more seats in Congress than Texas.
"I know they say, 'Don't mess with Texas,'" Newsom quipped. "Well, don't mess with the great Golden State."
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