{"id":160704,"date":"2025-08-15T01:14:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gavin-newsom-says-california-will-move-forward-with-map-redrawing-plan-in-response-to-texas-effort-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T01:14:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:14:01","slug":"gavin-newsom-says-california-will-move-forward-with-map-redrawing-plan-in-response-to-texas-effort-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/gavin-newsom-says-california-will-move-forward-with-map-redrawing-plan-in-response-to-texas-effort-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Newsom says California will move forward with map redrawing plan in response to Texas effort – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Governor reveals election rigging response act to counter Trump\u2019s push to gain five extra seats in Texas midterms
Gavin Newsom, California\u2019s governor, said on Thursday state Democratic lawmakers would move forward with a redistricting plan to counter the Republican-led map-drawing effort in Texas aimed at securing a House majority after the midterm elections.
Newsom, joined by congressional Democrats and legislative leaders, unveiled a plan, known as the election rigging response act, that would override California\u2019s independent redistricting commission and draw new congressional lines \u2013 a direct counter to a Texas effort, sought by Donald Trump<\/a>, to push through mid-cycle maps that could hand Republicans five extra US House seats. The governor vowed the move would \u201cneuter and neutralize\u201d Texas\u2019s proposal.
\u201cToday is liberation day in the state of California,\u201d Newsom declared at a rally in Los Angeles<\/a>, in which he formally called for a 4 November special election to approve a new congressional map. \u201cWe can\u2019t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country.\u201d
As he spoke at the Japanese American National museum\u2019s National Center for the Preservation of Democracy \u2013 a venue deliberately chosen for its symbolism \u2013 federal agents, armed and masked, fanned out across the complex, led by Gregory Bovino, head of the border patrol\u2019s El Centro sector. Local news footage showed a man being led away in handcuffs.
After the rally, Newsom called the presence of border patrol agents \u201csick and pathetic\u201d and accused Trump of ordering the operation to intimidate Democrats<\/a>. \u201cWake up, America,\u201d Newsom warned. \u201cYou will not have a country if he rigs this election.\u201d
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat who was not attending the event, arrived on the scene to condemn the raid. In remarks to reporters, she argued<\/a> that it was not \u201ca coincidence\u201d the raid took place steps from where Newsom was speaking.. \u201cThe White House just sent federal agents to try to intimidate elected officials at a press conference,\u201d she said in a social media post<\/a>. \u201cThe problem for them is Los Angeles doesn\u2019t get scared and Los Angeles doesn\u2019t back down. We never have and we never will\u201d.\u201d
The Department of Homeland Security said Bass \u201cmust be misinformed\u201d.
\u201cOur law enforcement operations are about enforcing the law \u2013 not about Gavin Newsom. CBP patrols all areas of Los Angeles every day with over 40 teams on the ground to make LA safe,\u201d Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary, said in a post<\/a> on social media.
The California map would only take effect if Texas \u2013 or any other Republican-led state \u2013 advanced a a partisan redistricting plan. Newsom said he preferred all states adopt independent commission, as California does, and had previously said<\/a> in a letter to Trump that he would \u201chappily\u201d stand down if Texas abandoned its effort.
Earlier on Thursday, a group of Texas Democrats, who had blocked a vote on the measure by fleeing the state, said they were prepared to end their two-week walkout when California<\/a> releases its redrawn map proposal. Their return to the state legislature would allow Republicans to plow ahead. Accepting that reality, Newsom said California \u2013 with a population larger than the 21 smallest states combined \u2013 would not \u201cunilaterally disarm\u201d.
\u201cIt\u2019s not complicated,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas<\/a> and said, \u2018Find me five seats.\u2019\u201d
In a recent interview,<\/a> Trump claimed that Republicans were \u201centitled to five more seats\u201d in Texas because he won the state overwhelmingly in the 2024 presidential election.
The new map, Newsom said, would remain in place through the 2030 elections, after which mapmaking power would return to the independent redistricting commission, approved by voters more than a decade ago. The Democratic-led state legislature will introduce legislation on Monday, he added, expressing confidence the initiative would pass and ultimately prevail at the ballot box in November.
California has 52 House seats \u2013 43 held by Democrats \u2013 and several of the nation\u2019s most competitive races, including a handful that helped Republicans<\/a> claim the majority in 2024.
How California<\/a> voters will respond is uncertain: polls have found deep support for the state\u2019s independent redistricting commission, suggesting Democrats will have to work quickly over the next three months to persuade voters to support their plan.
Sara Sadhwani, a Democrat who served on California\u2019s 2020 independent redistricting commission, said she wanted partisan gerrymandering banned nationwide. But in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sadhwani stood side by side with Newsom, lawmakers, labor leaders and advocates in support of tearing up the maps she helped draw. \u201cExtraordinary times call for extraordinary measures,\u201d she said.
Common Cause, a good government group that has long opposed partisan map-making, said in a statement this week that it would \u201cnot pre-emptively\u201d oppose the effort by California to redraw its maps in response to partisan redistricting in Texas.
\u201cA blanket condemnation at this moment would be sitting on the sidelines in the face of authoritarianism,\u201d the group stated.
Eric Holder, a former attorney general and chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said on Thursday that he backed \u201cresponsible and responsive\u201d countermeasures to Trump\u2019s \u201cextreme and unjustified mid-decade gerrymanders in Texas and beyond\u201d.
\u201cOur democracy is under attack,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have no choice but to defend it.\u201d
Republicans have denounced the California proposal: \u201cGavin Newsom\u2019s latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power,\u201d Christian Martinez, the National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson, said in a statement, accusing the governor of trampling the will of California voters to serve a \u201cpathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream\u201d.
At the rally in Los Angeles, there was little sympathy for the nearly half-dozen California Republicans who could be out of job if the redistricting plan succeeds. Speaking before the governor, Jodi Hicks, the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, had a message for the nine Republicans who backed legislation rolling back reproductive rights: \u201cYou take away our freedoms, we\u2019ll take away your seats.\u201d
Texas\u2019s pursuit of new maps has kicked off a redistricting \u201carms race\u201d that has spread to state legislatures across the country. Leaders in Florida and Missouri \u2013 and in blue state like New York and Illinois \u2013 are weighing similar moves. \u201cOther blue states need to stand up,\u201d Newsom said.
The campaign, with a freshly launched website, will be enormously costly and is expected to draw national attention and donors eager for a high-stakes, off-year political brawl. Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who championed independent redistricting, has already voiced opposition. Newsom said he had spoken to Schwarzenegger and shared his disdain for gerrymandering, but argued that this was about preserving American democracy.
\u201cIt\u2019s not good enough to just hold hands, have a candlelight vigil and talk about the way the world should be,\u201d Newsom said on Thursday. \u201cWe have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt. And we have got to meet fire with fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Governor reveals election rigging response act to counter Trump\u2019s push to gain five extra seats in Texas midtermsGavin Newsom, California\u2019s governor, said on Thursday state Democratic lawmakers would move forward with a redistricting plan to counter the Republican-led map-drawing effort in Texas aimed at securing a House majority after the midterm elections.Newsom, joined by congressional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}