Californians will vote in a special election in November to determine if the Legislature should redraw the Congressional district lines in a move to set Democrats up to gain more seats in 2026.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a rally in Los Angeles on Thursday with fellow Democrats to officially announce that the partisan redistricting plan will appear in front of the voters in response to redistricting efforts in Texas.
The backstory: Newsom has floated the idea of mid-decade redistricting over the last few weeks after Texas took steps to do the same.
- While any potential maps have not been publicly released yet, reports showed that the Legislature would target five districts currently represented by Republicans.
- California’s Congressional map is drawn by an independent citizens commission once every decade, with the commission first drawing the new map in 2010.
State of play: The Los Angeles rally was short on details, instead appearing almost like a presidential campaign rally for Newsom.
- He was joined by U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, as well as Democratic members of Congress and the California Legislature. Sara Sadhwani also joined them. Sadhwani was a member of the Citizens Redistricting Commission and was the person behind the gerrymandered 20th Congressional District in the Central Valley, which includes an arm into Kings County that lumps Republican voters together that would otherwise have been placed districts 21 and 22.
- They introduced the Election Rigging Response Act, which will go in front of the voters on Nov. 4, assuming the Legislature calls for a special election.
Watch: Along with the rally, Newsom released an advertisement online urging voters to vote yes on the initiative in November.
- But with the Legislature not actually taking any action yet, Newsom produced an advertisement for an initiative that does not actually exist yet.
Trump’s election rigging comes to an end now. California won’t stand by and watch Trump burn it all down — we are calling a special election to redraw our Congressional maps and defend fair representation.
This is a five alarm fire for Democracy. Vote YES November 4. pic.twitter.com/7MQz6LjaG6— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) August 14, 2025
Feds show up: U.S. Border Patrol officers conducted immigration enforcement in the area around the Japanese American Cultural Center in Little Tokyo, where Newsom held the rally.
- A Newsom spokesperson told the media that Border Patrol arrested “a few” people outside of the rally.
What they’re saying: “Today is liberation day in the state of California,” Newsom said. “Donald Trump – you have poked the bear, and we will punch back.”
- Newsom called on other states to step up and redraw their own Congressional lines as well to fight Trump.
- Following the rally, California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin decried Newsom’s push for mid-decade redistricting.
- “Governor Newsom says this is about giving power to the people but the people already have that power,” Rankin said. “They used it to create and expand California’s independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, taking politicians out of the process so no one could rig the maps for their own gain. Now, Newsom wants to take that power back, rush through secret maps, and spend hundreds of millions so he and his friends can choose their voters instead of voters choosing their representatives. He calls it transparent and temporary but it is really a calculated power grab that dismantles the very safeguards voters put in place. This is Gavin the Gaslighter overturning the will of the voters and telling you it’s for your own good.”
- Asm. Alexandra Macedo (R–Tulare), the Vice Chair of the Assembly Committee on Elections, called Newsom’s redistricting push “sinister.”
- “In his quest to grab national headlines, the Governor is proposing to dismiss the will of the voters,” Macedo said. “Governor Newsom is on a mission to take power away from the California Citizens Redistricting Commission. Governor Newsom’s power-grab erodes public trust in our government. Undermining the Commission’s hard work – to grab national headlines – is shortsighted and insulting to voters.”
