AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — California has landed its counterpunch. The national tug-of-war over redistricting and voters in the 2026 midterm elections shifts once again back to Texas, where it all started.
California lawmakers voted mostly along party lines Thursday to approve legislation calling for a special election in November to approve a redrawn congressional map designed to help Democrats win five more U.S. House seats next year.
That move came a day after Texas Republicans advanced their own redrawn map to pad their House majority by the same number of seats at the urging of President Donald Trump.
Texas lawmakers meet again Friday, when the Republican majority in the Senate could give final approval to their map, sending it to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had rallied Democrats in his state to counter Texas' initial moves, quickly signed the special election bill in a tit-for-tat gerrymandering battle that is rippling through several states.
“This is not something six weeks ago that I ever imagined that I’d be doing,” Newsom said at a press conference, pledging a campaign for the measure that would reach out to Democrats, Republicans and independent voters. “This is a reaction to an assault on our democracy in Texas.”
California Republicans have filed a lawsuit and called for a federal investigation into the plan. They promise to fight the measure at the ballot box as well.
California Assemblyman James Gallagher, the Republican minority leader, said Trump was “wrong” to push for new Republican seats elsewhere, contending the president was just responding to Democratic gerrymandering in other states. But he warned that Newsom’s approach, which the governor has dubbed “fight fire with fire,” was dangerous.
“You move forward fighting fire with fire and what happens?” Gallagher asked. “You burn it all down.”
A battle for the US House control waged via redistricting
On a national level, the partisan makeup of existing districts puts Democrats within three seats of a majority. The incumbent president’s party usually loses congressional seats in the midterms.
The president has pushed other Republican-controlled states including Indiana and Missouri to also revise their maps to add more winnable GOP seats. Ohio Republicans were also already scheduled to revise their maps to make them more partisan.
Redistricting typically occurs once a decade, immediately after a census. While some states have their own limitations, there is no national impediment to a state trying to redraw districts in the middle of the decade.
The U.S. Supreme Court has also said the Constitution does not outlaw partisan gerrymandering, only using race to redraw district lines.
Democrats have sought a national commission for redistricting
Republicans and some Democrats championed the 2008 ballot measure that established California’s nonpartisan redistricting commission, along with the 2010 one that extended its role to drawing congressional maps.
Newsom backed the initial redistricting commission ballot measures. On Thursday, he contended his state was still setting a model.
“We’ll be the first state in U.S. history, in the most democratic way, to submit to the people of our state the ability to determine their own maps,” Newsom said before signing the legislation.
Former President Barack Obama, who has also backed a nationwide nonpartisan approach, has also backed Newsom’s bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP’s Texas move.
California's plan is temporary
The measure would have the California map last only through 2030, after which the state’s commission would draw the next decade’s map. Democrats are also mulling reopening Maryland’s and New York’s maps for mid-decade redraws.
However, more Democratic-run states have commission systems like California’s or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, can’t draw new maps until 2028, and even then, only with voter approval.
In Texas, outnumbered Democrats left the state for 15 days to block a vote. Once they returned, they were assigned round-the-clock police monitoring.
California Republicans didn’t take such dramatic steps but complained bitterly about Democrats muscling the package through the statehouse.
“What you’re striving for is predetermined elections,” Strickland said. “You’re taking the voice away from Californians.”
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Riccardi reported from Denver. Austin and Nguyen reported from Sacramento, California.
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