California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (second from left), joined by fellow Assembly members, listens to speakers during a meeting of the Assembly at the California State Capitol on August 21 in Sacramento. Photo / Getty Images
California lawmakers have begun passing a series of bills aimed at drawing new congressional maps, as Democrats try to counter a Republican-driven effort in Texas.
The blue and red states are rejiggering their maps in hopes of creating new US House districts that would give their parties an advantage in next year’s midterm elections. Though Texas and California have acted first, an array of other states are also moving ahead. Republicans are eyeing changes in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Florida. Democrats are looking at whether they carve out more seats in Illinois.
The extraordinary fight over the terrain for next year’s election has included an assertion from President Donald Trump that his party is “entitled” to more House seats, a two-week walkout by Texas Democrats and an array of lawsuits and threats from both parties in multiple states.
California lawmakers say their new Democrat-leaning maps – adding as many as five blue seats – are necessary to respond to what they view as a power grab by Texas House Republicans, who approved a new map yesterday that would give their party an edge in winning as many as five new GOP seats in Congress. The Texas Senate is expected to follow suit by Friday, sending the measure to Governor Greg Abbott (R) for his signature.
California’s first measure Assembly Bill 8, passed with the required two-thirds vote of 57-20, largely along party lines. The one Democrat to vote against the measure, Assembly member Jasmeet Bains, has announced she is challenging US Representative David Valadao, a Republican, for his congressional seat in 2026. That seat would be altered to favour Democrats under the proposed changes.
The Senate and Assembly then began taking up other related bills needed to get the new maps in front of voters in a November 4 special election.
Democrats hope to pass all three bills today and send them to Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, who plans to sign them immediately.
California state Senator Lena Gonzalez, an author of the bill drawing the new maps, called it a “reasonable and rational response to the anti-democratic actions of the Republican Party as they attempt to rig our congressional elections”. Senate Republicans argued California’s independent commission is the best way to do redistricting and should not be set aside, even temporarily.
“The ends don’t justify the means,” state Senator Tony Strickland (R) told his Democratic colleagues. “You know this is not good for democracy in California.”
California has more hurdles in its process than in Texas, because the state constitution requires that an independent non-partisan panel draw its congressional maps.
Today’s bills create a proposed constitutional amendment that would come before voters in November, allowing them to bypass that commission and approve the Democratic-leaning maps.
“This isn’t politics as usual. It’s an emergency for our democracy. And we’re acting now to save our future,” Newsom wrote on X today.
Republican lawmakers in California tried several parliamentary manoeuvres to delay the vote. The Republican leader of the California Assembly James Gallagher noted in his speech on the floor that the state’s voters weighed in against gerrymandering, through ballot measures in 2008 and 2010, and created the state’s independent redistricting commission that aims to draw non-partisan lines.
“Twice, they told us they want independent redistricting, fair representation,” Gallagher told his colleagues on the Assembly floor. “You move forward fighting fire with fire – what happens? You burn it all down. And in this case, it affects our most fundamental American principle: representation.”
Originally, Democratic lawmakers said in the bill that the changes to California’s maps would kick in only if Texas or another Republican-controlled state gives final approval to changes in its own map. But they have amended the bill to remove that trigger language and any mention of Texas or other states.
Democrats were working on a tight deadline because the orders for the special election must be transmitted to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D) by Friday local time to get the measure on the November ballot.
Newsom and his Democratic allies in the legislature insist they still support the independent redistricting committee process, which was created by voter-approved ballot measures in 2008 and 2010 and is popular with the state’s voters. But they argue that their partisan response to Texas is necessary to check the power of Trump, who urged Texas’ governor to redraw his state’s maps.
Republicans hold a 219-212 US House majority with four vacancies. Democratic control would give the Opposition power to thwart Trump’s legislative agenda and launch investigations into him and his administration.
GOP leaders in the California legislature have argued that Democrats controlling the process have allowed little transparency, even shrouding the identities of the lawmakers involved in drawing the new district lines.
“This is a battle between people and politicians,” Gallagher said in an interview yesterday. “The people spoke very loudly in California twice, saying they didn’t want politicians drawing district lines, that they wanted the people to have that power. And I think that very deeply ingrained mindset in California voters is going to win out in the end.”
The Texas state House voted yesterday along party lines, 88-52, to advance that state’s new maps. The process has been especially contentious, with Democrats fleeing the state to halt business for two weeks by denying Republicans a quorum. Upon their return, Republicans barred them from leaving the Capitol without a police escort.
State House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) said “passage of the congressional map has ushered in a new chapter of Republican unity, and I am proud to have led my colleagues in this important achievement”.
The Texas map proposal is pending in the state Senate. The chamber’s redistricting committee has advanced the legislation and it is expected to receive a floor vote by the end of the week.
In addition to Texas and California, several other states are considering altering their maps – a process that usually takes place only once a decade following the census.