Latest news with #Texas Republicans
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Redistricting California: Newly proposed congressional maps released
The Brief The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has submitted a proposed map of California's redrawn congressional districts. The move by Newsom, and state Democrats, counters similar efforts underway in Texas. The new maps will likely be decided by California voters in a Nov. 4 special election. LOS ANGELES - A day after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to redraw California's congressional districts, in response to a similar attempt by Republicans in Texas, a proposed map of the new districts was released. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee submitted the following congressional map to the California state legislature for consideration. Key points and differences Below is a breakdown of the key points of the new map from the DCCC. The submitted map is consistent with criteria laid out by the California's Citizen Redistricting Commission. It keeps districts more compact than in the current Commission-drawn map, which helps to keep more communities and neighborhoods together. It splits fewer cities than the current map (57 in submitted map versus 60 in current map). It minimizes changes to the 2020 Commission map to impact as few residents as possible. The submitted map leaves 8 districts untouched and, in 20 districts, fewer than 10% of residents are impacted. Communities of interest are protected, with necessary splits in San Jose, Sacramento, and Los Angeles (all cities that were split by the commission) done so along neighborhood boundaries and/or city council district lines. View the newly proposed congressional maps here View the current congressional maps here What they're saying "We will not stand by as Republicans attempt to rig the election in their favor and choose their voters. It's increasingly clear that Republicans will do anything to protect their narrow majority because they know they can't win on their disastrous legislative record which has raised costs and rips away healthcare for millions, all to give the ultra-wealthy a tax break," DCCC Executive Director Julie Merz said in a statement. 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 a Nov. 4 vote. PREVIOUS COVERAGE:Newsom unveils plan for redistricting California According to Politico, if the redistricting happens, three seats that are currently considered 'safe Republican' would change to 'safe Democratic' and one more would switch to 'lean Democratic'. Those seats currently belong to Republicans Doug Lamalfa, Ken Calvert, Darrell Issa, and Kevin Kiley. Reason for redistricting The backstory The move to redistrict California is a direct response to a Republican-led effort in Texas, pushed by President Donald Trump, as his party seeks to maintain its slim House majority after the midterm election. Texas lawmakers are considering a new map that would help them send five more Republicans to Washington, but Democrats have so far halted a vote by leaving the state to prevent their GOP colleagues from meeting Trump's demands. "We can't stand back and watch this amok or this bankruptcy disappear. We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear, district by district, all across this country, 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 California. Other blue states need to stand up," Newsom said during a press conference Thursday in Los Angeles. There are 435 seats in the U.S. House and Republicans currently hold a 219-212 majority, with four vacancies. New maps are typically drawn once a decade after the census is conducted. Many states give legislators the power to draw maps but some, like California, rely on an independent commission that is supposed to be nonpartisan. California Democrats already hold 43 of the state's 52 House seats, and the state has some of the most competitive House seats. The Source Information for this story came from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and previous FOX 11 reports.
Al Arabiya
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Trump Tells Texas Republicans to Redraw the State Congressional Map to Help Keep House Majority
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is pushing Texas Republicans to redraw the states congressional maps to create more House seats favorable to his party – part of a broader effort to help the GOP retain control of the chamber in next year's midterm elections. The president's directive signals part of the strategy Trump is likely to take to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House just two years into his presidency. It comes shortly before the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature is scheduled to begin a special session next week, during which it will consider new congressional maps to further marginalize Democrats in the state. Asked as he departed the White House for Pittsburgh about the possibility of adding GOP-friendly districts around the country, Trump responded, 'Texas will be the biggest one. And that'll be five.' Trump had a call earlier Tuesday with members of Texas Republican congressional delegation and told them the state Legislature would pursue five new winnable seats through redistricting, according to a person familiar the call who was not authorized to discuss it. The call was first reported by Punchbowl News. Congressional maps drawn after the 2020 census were expected to remain in place through the end of the decade. If Texas redraws them at the behest of Trump, that could lead other states to do the same, including those controlled by Democrats. In response to the Texas plan, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media: 'Two can play this game.' Still, Democrats may have their hands at least partly tied. Many of the states the party controls have their state legislative and congressional maps drawn by independent commissions that are not supposed to favor either party. That's the case in California, where Newsom has no role in the redistricting game after voters approved the commission system with a 2008 ballot measure. Redistricting is a constitutionally mandated process for redrawing political districts after the once-a-decade census to ensure they have equal populations. But there is no prohibition against rejiggering maps between censuses, and sometimes court rulings have made that mandatory. The wave of voluntary mid-decade redistricting that Trump is encouraging, however, is unusual. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries wouldn't comment Tuesday on whether nonpartisan systems such as California's should be rolled back, instead saying Trump's push will undermine free and fair elections. 'Public servants should earn the votes of the people that they hope to represent. What Republicans are trying to do in Texas is to have politicians choose their voters,' Jeffries said at a news conference. Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, whose district includes part of Austin, also criticized Texas Republicans for focusing on redistricting after July Fourth holiday floods killed at least 132 people and with more still missing. 'There's no doubt there were the failures at every level of government. The county, the state of Texas, the federal government. What the special session should be about is doing something to correct those failures,' said Doggett. 'Redistricting – this scheme – is an act of desperation.' The special Texas legislative session scheduled to start Monday is intended to primarily focus on the aftermath of the deadly floods. An agenda for the session set by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott put forth plans to take up legislation that provides a revised congressional redistricting plan in light of constitutional concerns raised by the US Department of Justice. Republicans in Ohio also are poised to redraw their maps after years of political and court battles over the states redistricting process. The GOP-controlled legislature there is considering expanding the party's lead in the congressional delegation to as much as 13-2. It currently has a 10-5 advantage. Still, there are practical limits as to how many new seats any party can squeeze from a map. That's why some Texas Republicans have been hesitant about another redraw. In 2011, the party's legislators drew an aggressive map to expand their majority, only to find seats they thought were safe washed away in the 2018 Democratic wave election during Trump's first term. In response, the map in 2021 was drawn more cautiously, mainly preserving the GOP's current outsized majority in its congressional delegation. There are 25 Republican House members from the state compared to 12 Democrats and one Democratic vacancy that is scheduled to be filled by a special election. Any effort to expand the number of GOP seats will mean redistributing Democratic-leaning voters from those blue districts into Republican ones. That could tip previously safe GOP districts into the Democratic column, something Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Suze DelBene predicted at a Tuesday press conference. 'Any new map that Texas Republicans draw will almost inevitably create more competitive districts,' she said. 'This scheme to rig the maps is hardly going to shore up their majority. It is going to expand the battleground in the race for the majority.' Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn was more bullish on a mid-cycle redistricting, noting that Latino voters in Texas have been trending toward Republicans in recent elections. He said redrawing the map this year will mean significant gains for Texas Republicans.
