Gavin Newsom says he's always supported nonpartisan redistricting. Has he?
As Gov. Gavin Newsom champions a redistricting overhaul — citing GOP gerrymandering sparked by President Donald Trump's order for Texas to carve out another five Republican seats — records show he did not initially support the state's nonpartisan redistricting commission despite his recent statements that he broke ranks with his party over the issue.
The California governor has become the Democrats' most vocal champion of partisan redistricting after Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered a special legislative session last month to redraw district boundaries and shore up the GOP's congressional majority ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Newsom has proposed that voters approve temporary new congressional maps, drawn up by state lawmakers, in a special Nov. 4 election, which would be in effect for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections, before reverting redistricting power back to the commission. Democrats in Maryland, Illinois and New York are considering similar efforts, which has become the party's most potent weapon in opposing Trump.
Democrats in California's congressional delegation have reviewed one version, which targets five districts held by Republican Reps. Kevin Kiley, Ken Calvert, David Valadao, Darrell Issa and Doug LaMalfa. The new boundaries would force more liberal voters into those districts, making them easier for Democrats to flip and counteract the five seats the GOP is hoping to pick up in Texas.
Newsom, purportedly eyeing a run for higher office after he is termed out of the governor's mansion next year, said earlier this week he will not move ahead with his own effort if Texas backs down. He said he supports redistricting despite personal reservations about undercutting the Citizen Redistricting Commission, a nonpartisan 14-member state body established in 2008 via Proposition 11, that draws congressional and legislative maps after each Census count.
'I actually was one of the few Democrats back in the day (to support it) when we created the independent redistricting commission, which I think personally should be the case in every state,' Newsom recently said on his podcast. 'This is ridiculous. This gerrymandering is outrageous. I don't like it on either side, and so I supported that.'
On Wednesday, he sent a short email to supporters claiming the tactic was one of last resort: 'I've long supported independent redistricting. I can't stand these gerrymandered districts. But Democrats can't just sit there and act holier than thou while we watch our democracy be totally degraded.'
'I think our democracy would be well served with some competition'
However, there is no evidence to suggest that Newsom, who was mayor of San Francisco when voters approved Prop. 11, weighed in on the issue at the time. Prop. 11 established the Citizen Redistricting Commission, which proponents said would enact political reform by forcing incumbents to run competitive races and reflect the state's ideological and racial diversity.
Two years later, in 2010, Newsom opposed Proposition 27, an unsuccessful measure that would have voided Proposition 20, a competing initiative that passed in the Nov. 2010 election and that granted the commission power to redistrict congressional boundaries.
Prop. 27, which would have eliminated the commission, failed to pass, drawing cheers from opponents who derided it as politicians' attempt to snatch back power and draw up districts favoring them and their allies.
A list of California elected officials who endorsed Prop. 11 as of Oct. 22, 2008 does not include Newsom or any other San Francisco elected officials. Only the San Francisco Chronicle and Howard Epstein, then-chair of the San Francisco Republican Party, are listed as proponents in that city. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, former Sen. Barbara Boxer, and the California Democratic Party opposed the measure at the time.
And despite Newsom's claims to have broken with his party at the time, several Democrats led the campaign in favor of Prop. 11, including former Gov. Gray Davis, former Assembly Speaker and Senate President pro Tem Fred Keeley, former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg and former State Controller Steve Westly, according to a list of supporters.
Nor does Newsom's name appear on a list of donors or committee members financially supporting Prop. 11. An exploratory committee for his short-lived 2010 gubernatorial bid only donated to one statewide ballot measure campaign in 2008: the No on Prop 8 campaign, which sought to uphold same-sex marriage in California. Newsom gave the group a total of $20,000, according to campaign finance records.
More recently, in 2023 the governor vetoed Assembly Bill 1248, which would have created local independent redistricting commissions in municipalities with more than 300,000 residents or school districts with more than 500,000. He also vetoed Senate Bill 52, which would have required independent commissions in cities like Los Angeles, whose city council had just suffered a scandal where three members were recorded making racist comments during a private meeting on redistricting.
The governor said in a veto message that AB 1248 would have created 'a state-reimbursable mandate in the tens of millions and should therefore be considered in the annual budget process,' which he also cited when he vetoed SB 52.
Nathan Click, Newsom's campaign spokesperson, pointed towards Newsom's support in July 2001 of a local San Francisco charter amendment, Proposition G, overhauling local redistricting and ensuring that the process reflected census population changes and neighborhood diversity.
Newsom was one of 10 supervisors on the 11-member board to vote to place Prop. G on the Nov. 6, 2001 ballot, which it passed. Leland Yee, who as a state senator later pleaded guilty to a corruption charge, was Prop. G's sole opponent.
'San Francisco deserves a redistricting process free of undue political influence that uses the best available information and that has clear deadlines,' the 10 supervisors said in their supporting argument.
Click also highlighted statements Newsom, then running for lieutenant governor, made in 2010 opposing Prop. 27.
'Democrats have had it too easy,' the Los Angeles Times quoted Newsom during a debate against former Republican Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado. 'I think our democracy would be well served with some competition.'
Fighting fire with fire
As California lawmakers advance with Newsom's proposal to carve out five more Democratic congressional seats, his efforts pit him against former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has emerged as the face of an opposition campaign from Charles Munger, a California Republican donor who originally financed Prop. 11.
Munger, who did not respond to requests for comment, has vowed to sue if Newsom is successful. So has Steve Hilton, a Republican running for governor in the 2026 election, who said this week he's preparing to file the 'moment' lawmakers send an amendment to the ballot box.
Opponents on both sides of the aisle have accused Newsom of softening his past political positions to appeal more widely to moderate voters as he road-tests a possible presidential campaign. As a San Francisco supervisor, he was seen as a moderating force on the liberal board before entering the governor's race as a progressive.
In recent months, Democrats in the Legislature and nationally accused him of equivocating on his past support for transgender rights after saying he agreed with Republicans who oppose allowing trans athletes to compete in sports, and he has come under fire for calling his party 'toxic' as it struggled to counter Trump after the 2024 election.
Fifteen years later, Newsom is emerging as the Democrats' loudest advocate for retaliation as Texas Republicans look to eke out another five seats by slicing up Democratic-held districts. The effort to counteract Republican gerrymandering has united an opposition party that until recently was foundering amid historically low approval ratings and interparty fighting.
Newsom met with six Texas Democrats in Sacramento days before they and dozens of other state representatives fled Austin in a successful, ongoing bid to deny Republicans a quorum to move forward.
The Bee's Nicole Nixon contributed to this story.
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