Governor Gavin Newsom is holding a special election this November in hopes the citizens of California will allow him to create a House redistricting map to counter the move by Texas to create a new redistricting map of their own.
Here’s more from Fox News:
As the controversy surrounding Texas’s redistricting efforts still rages, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that the Golden State will move forward with a plan for a special election in early November to place its own redistricting plan on a ballot measure before voters.
Newsom said the move was a counterpunch to Texas and was being done in a transparent fashion, but would also likely see Democrats pick up five seats if the measure is adopted. The plan would allow Democrats to temporarily bypass the state’s independent redistricting commission and adopt a new congressional map ahead of the 2026 elections.
“We are talking about emergency measures to respond to what’s happening in Texas and we will nullify what happens in Texas,” Newsom said at a Friday press conference flanked by several California lawmakers and some Texas Democrats who fled their state.
“We’ll pick up five seats with the consent of the people. And that’s the difference between the approach we’re taking and the approach they’re taking,” Newsom continued. “We’re doing it on a temporary basis. We’re doing it in a fully transparent way and we’re doing it by asking the people of the state of California for their consent and support.”
California would be the first Democratic-led state to actively begin the process of passing new congressional district lines ahead of the 2026 midterms in response to Texas’s redistricting push.
Newsom said Democrats have until Aug. 22 to get the measure on the ballot and he railed against President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in justifying the move.
Not only does he need to get a positive referendum from the people, which I think is likely, but there will be legal challenges to the map and he’ll have to convince a court to sign off on the map as well. It is an uphill battle and I hope he fails spectacularly.