Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday intensified his redistricting war with President Donald Trump, huddling with Texas Democrats in Sacramento to strategize ways to block the GOP’s plans to gain House seats in the 2026 election.
“Everything is at stake if we are not successful next year in taking back the House of Representatives,” Newsom said during a news conference at the governor’s mansion, where he was joined by half a dozen state representatives from Texas. “Of course, we want a fair playing field. We want to play the game on the terms where everybody is playing by the same set of rules. That’s no longer the case.”
The meeting was a direct response to recent plans by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other Lone Star Republicans to redraw the state’s voting district maps. On Trump’s urging, the conservative lawmakers are devising ways to place another five seats in the GOP’s column and bolster the party’s chances of maintaining control of the House in 2026.
While Newsom stopped short of laying out specific counterattacks, the most likely options include having the California Legislature, where Democrats control a supermajority in both the Senate and Assembly, complete a mid-decade redrawing of the state’s congressional maps for the 2026 midterms, or having voters approve changes to the boundaries via a ballot measure.
Either path presents challenges.
Unlike in Texas, where Republicans in the statehouse create voting boundaries, the nonpartisan, independent, 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission draws the state’s legislative and congressional maps at the start of every decade.
The commission’s powers were established via ballot measures in 2008 and 2010 that stripped control over the maps from state lawmakers. California’s format is considered the best practice for redistricting, as opposed to Texas and other states that have long faced accusations of gerrymandering to benefit a majority party.
Newsom argued that the “nationalization” of the redistricting process and the possibility of a rigged midterm election next year requires an urgent and unconventional response.
“Things have changed. So, too, must we,” Newsom said. “If we don’t put a stake into the heart of this administration, there may not be an election in 2028.”
Paul Mitchell, a Democratic data consultant, said California Democrats must be careful to avoid circumventing the popular redistricting commission. Democrats, he said, should assure voters that any action they take would be a one-time anomaly and that the commission would eventually resume control of the maps.
“We are going to be doing the right thing by keeping the commission, and in the time being, we are going to confront what Texas is doing, what other states are doing,” Mitchell said, describing Democrats’ likely approach.
Though the details are unclear at this point, Newsom’s intentions have drawn criticism from Republicans as well as from nonpartisan government watchdogs, which have issued warnings against engaging in an undemocratic fight that would almost certainly face legal hurdles.
“Gavin Newsom is wrong on redistricting. It is not the leadership California needs right now. It is not the leadership the nation needs now or in the future,” Darius Kemp, California executive director of the good governance group Common Cause, said in a statement. “Governor Newsom can still choose to lead with our state as a gold standard, rather than pick a fight that honestly, his political party cannot and will not win.”
Matt Rexroad, a Republican consultant and redistricting expert, called Newsom’s proposal a “really horrible idea” that “becomes a race to the bottom of poor public policy.”
Rexroad said his concerns extend beyond Newsom engaging in tit-for-tat redistricting to long-term consequences after the midterms. Could a governor repeatedly ask the Legislature to redraw maps if he doesn’t get the election results he wants? Will state lawmakers, who have their own political ambitions, draw maps they see as personally beneficial?
“Every one of those legislators is going to be drawing a district that benefits their congressional future,” Rexroad said. “The commission is better, because all of that personal self-interest is set aside.”
Newsom said California’s efforts are contingent on what happens in Texas. But both states are taking a big gamble with their plans.
In Texas, Republicans stand to gain very little from additional gerrymandering and could unintentionally end up losing seats, Mitchell said. But in California, which hasn’t undergone a partisan map-drawing process in decades, there are far more congressional districts to alter in ways that favor Democrats.
Mitchell pointed to several vulnerable Republicans in the Central Valley, Orange County, and the Sacramento region that could see their districts swing substantially to the left with only minor tweaks to the maps, in a way that wouldn’t hurt Democrats in those regions.
“There are so many pockets of Democratic voters just sitting around all over the state that could be placed in Republican districts,” Mitchell said.
The redistricting conversation almost certainly buoys Newsom’s national political image before the 2028 presidential contest, while offering Democrats a combative playbook at a time when voters are desperate for a more aggressive response to Trump’s policies.
Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College who served as a Democratic member of the 2020 redistricting commission, said she stands by the “fair and competitive” districts the group created.
The commissioners — five Democrats, five Republicans, and four unaffiliated voters — met virtually for months during the pandemic to pore over voting and demographic data and review thousands of public comments to establish maps that could withstand legal challenges.
“That being said, I understand the governor’s interest in playing the same game that Texas is playing,” Sadhwani said. “I think it’s a patriotic thing to stand up for our nation’s democracy, which more and more feels like it is on the brink of collapse.”