SACRAMENTO — Ratcheting up the stress within the escalating nationwide combat over management of Congress, the California Legislature on Thursday accepted a November particular election to ask voters to redraw the state’s electoral strains to favor Democrats and thwart President Trump’s far-right coverage agenda.
The poll measure, pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and different state and nationwide Democratic leaders, is the most recent volley in a nationwide political brawl over electoral maps that might alter the end result of the 2026 midterm elections and the stability of energy within the U.S. Home of Representatives.
If voters approve the redrawn strains on Nov. 4, Democrats within the Golden State would see the percentages tilted additional of their favor, whereas the variety of California Republicans within the Home could possibly be halved.
Newsom initially stated that new electoral districts in California would solely take impact if one other state redrew its strains earlier than 2031. However after Texas moved towards approving its personal maps this week that might give the GOP 5 extra Home seats, Democrats stripped the so-called “set off” language from the modification — that means that if voters approve the measure, the brand new strains would take impact it doesn’t matter what.
The poll measure language, which asks California voters to override the ability of the unbiased redistricting fee, was accepted by most Democrats within the Meeting and the Senate, the place they maintain supermajorities.
California lawmakers have the ability to position constitutional amendments on the statewide poll with out the approval of the governor. Newsom, nonetheless, is anticipated later Thursday to signal two separate payments that fund the particular election and spell out the strains for the brand new congressional districts.
Democrats’ rush to the poll marks a sudden departure from California’s 15-year dedication to unbiased redistricting, typically held up because the nation’s gold customary. The state’s voters stripped lawmakers of the ability to attract strains throughout the Nice Recession and handed that partisan energy to a panel of unbiased residents whose names are drawn in a lottery.
The change, Democrats stated, was pressured by a unprecedented change in circumstances: After a long time of america redrawing congressional strains as soon as a decade, Trump and his political workforce have leaned on Republican-led states to redraw their district strains earlier than the 2026 midterm elections to assist Republicans retain management of the Home.
“His playbook is a straightforward one: Bully, threaten, combat, then rig the principles to hold onto energy,” stated Meeting Speaker Robert Rivas. “We’re right here at present as a result of California won’t be a bystander to that energy seize. We aren’t intimidated, and we’re performing brazenly, lawfully, with objective and resolve, to defend our state and to defend our democracy.”
Republicans within the state Meeting and the state Senate criticized Newsom’s argument that Democrats should “combat fireplace with fireplace,” saying retaliation is a slippery slope that might erode the unbiased redistricting course of California voters have chosen twice on the poll field.
“You progress ahead combating fireplace with fireplace, and what occurs? You burn all of it down,” stated Meeting Minority Chief James Gallagher (R-Yuba Metropolis). He stated Trump was “fallacious” to push Gov. Greg Abbott to redraw Texas’ strains to profit Republicans, and so was California’s push to pursue the identical technique.
Democratic Meeting member Marc Berman speaks throughout a gathering of the California State Meeting on the California State Capitol on Thursday in Sacramento.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty Pictures)
State Senate Majority Chief Lena Gonzalez (D-Lengthy Seaside), who co-authored the invoice drawing the proposed congressional districts, stated Democrats had no selection however to face up, given the hurt the Trump administration has inflicted on healthcare, schooling, tariffs and different insurance policies that have an effect on Californians.
“What will we do? Simply sit again and do nothing?” Gonzalez stated. “Or will we combat again and supply some likelihood for our Californians to see themselves on this democracy?”
Senate Minority Chief Brian Jones (R-Santee) stated the hassle is “a corrupt redistricting scheme to rig California’s elections” that violates the “letter and the spirit of the California Structure.”
“Democrats are dashing this by way of beneath the guise of urgency,” Jones stated. “There isn’t any emergency that justifies this abuse of course of.”
Three Meeting Democrats didn’t vote in favor of the constitutional modification. Jasmeet Bains (D-Delano), who’s operating for Congress in opposition to Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) within the San Joaquin Valley, voted no. Progressive Caucus chair Alex Lee (D-San Jose) and Daybreak Addis (D-Morro Bay) didn’t vote.
Democrats will face an uncommon messaging problem with the November poll measure, stated Matt Lesenyie, an assistant professor of political science at Cal State Lengthy Seaside.
The opponents of mid-decade redistricting are stressing that the measure would “drawback voters,” he stated, which is “wording that Democrats have primed Democrats on, for now two administrations, that democracy is being killed with a thousand cuts.”
“It’s a bizarre, kind of up-is-down second,” Lesenyie stated.
How did we get right here?
Trump’s political workforce started pressuring Abbott and Texas Republicans in early June to redraw the state’s 38 congressional districts in the midst of the last decade — which may be very unusual — to offer Republicans a greater shot at protecting the Home in 2026.
“We’re entitled to 5 extra seats,” Trump later advised CNBC.
Some Texas Republicans feared that mid-decade redistricting might imperil their very own probabilities of reelection. However inside a month of the White Home floating the thought, Abbott added the brand new congressional strains, which might stack the deck in opposition to as many as 5 Texas Democrats in Congress, to the Legislature’s particular session in July.
By mid-July, Newsom was speaking about California punching again. In an interview with the progressive information web site the TN Holler, Newsom stated: “These guys, they’re not f—ing round. They’re taking part in by a completely completely different algorithm.”
Democrats in Texas fled the state for almost two weeks, together with some to California, to disclaim Republicans the quorum they wanted to cross the brand new strains. Abbott signed civil arrest warrants and levied fines on the 52 absent Democrats whereas they held information conferences in California and Illinois to carry consideration to the combat.
Whereas the Texas drama unfolded, consultants for the marketing campaign arm of Home Democrats in California quietly drew up maps that might additional chop down the variety of Golden State Republicans in Congress. The proposed modifications would remove the district of Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) and dilute the variety of GOP voters in 4 districts represented by Reps. Doug LaMalfa, Kevin Kiley, David Valadao and Darrell Issa.
The Democrats agreed to return to Texas final week and pointed to California’s tit-for-tat effort as one measure of success, saying the Golden State might neutralize any Republican positive factors in Texas.
Since then, different Republican-led states have begun to ponder redistricting too, together with Indiana, Florida and Missouri. Trump’s political allies are publicly threatening to mount major challenges in opposition to any Indiana Republican who opposes redrawing the strains.
In California, the opposition is shaping up as shortly because the poll measure.
California voters acquired the primary marketing campaign mailer opposing the poll measure a day earlier than the Legislature voted to approve it. A four-page shiny flier, funded by conservative donor and redistricting champion Charlie Munger Jr., warned voters that mid-decade redistricting is “weakening our Democratic course of” and “a risk to California’s landmark election reform.”
Republicans have additionally gone to court docket to strive to cease the measure, alleging in an emergency petition with the state Supreme Court docket that Democrats violated the state Structure by ramming the payments by way of with out following correct legislative process. The excessive court docket Wednesday rejected the petition.
A wave of authorized challenges are anticipated, not solely in California however in any state that reconfigures congressional districts within the increasing partisan brawl.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) stated Thursday morning {that a} lawsuit difficult the California poll measure can be filed in state court docket by Friday night. He stated Republicans additionally plan to litigate the title of the poll measure and any voter information supplies that accompany it.
And, he stated, if voters approve the brand new strains, “I consider we could have ample alternative to set the maps apart in federal court docket.”
