Democrats in California moved this week to counter redistricting efforts by Texas Republicans with discussions of a new political map of their own drawn to help Democrats win as many as five of the state’s Republican U.S. House seats next year.
That would functionally offset the five Democratic House seats that Republicans have targeted in Texas.
The plan seemed far-fetched a few weeks ago, but has been gaining momentum as a redistricting war that began in Texas threatens to spread across the country. California’s Democratic members of Congress and the state Legislature have been briefed in recent days. State lawmakers are planning to vote on the proposal the week of Aug. 18, and Gov. Gavin Newsom said he hopes to put a new map before voters in a special election on Nov. 4.
“If Republicans are going to play this game, California can fight and push back harder,” said Representative Robert Garcia, Democrat of Long Beach. “We’re not going to allow national congressional Republicans and Donald Trump to rig and gerrymander the map across the country and just sit by and do nothing.”
The action in California is the clearest sign yet that an effort pushed by President Trump to bolster Republican chances of retaining control of the House after the 2026 midterm elections could grow into a national fight stretching from coast to coast. The implications are stark, narrowing the number of swing House districts, empowering the ideological wings of both parties and reversing movements to take redistricting out of the hands of politicians and give it to nonpartisan commissions.
But partisanship is boiling over in Texas, and scalding other states. On Tuesday, the state’s senior senator, John Cornyn, asked the F.B.I. to help locate and arrest dozens of Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas to block the State Legislature from voting on the Republican redistricting plan.
Asked if the F.B.I. should get involved, Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday afternoon, “they may have to.”
The potential use of federal agents to round up the Texas lawmakers, who have sought refuge in New York, Illinois and Massachusetts, would set up a clash between the Democratic governors of those states and the Trump administration.
Defiant Democrats said they would not back down, and national party leaders are looking to Illinois, New York and Maryland to redraw their House maps, as well.
“If they’re going to cheat, then all of us have to take a hard look at what the effect of that cheating is on democracy,” Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois said on Tuesday. “That means we all have to stand up and do the right thing. So, as far as I’m concerned, everything is on the table.”
In truth, Republicans may have more cards to play in an all-out redistricting war in 2026 than the Democrats do. Republican leaders are looking to redraw maps in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio as well as Texas, and perhaps in more states as well. Vice President JD Vance plans to visit Indiana to discuss the push on Thursday, the state’s Republican governor, Mike Braun, told reporters on Tuesday.
In the meantime, House maps and redistricting laws in Democratic states present significant hurdles. Illinois, for instance, is already so skewed to Democrats that flipping even one of the three Republican seats left would be extremely difficult for mapmakers.
Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York warned on Monday that restrictions on redistricting in the state would most likely mean new maps could not be adopted until 2027. David Turner, a spokesman for Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, said this week that Mr. Moore, a Democrat, would “continue to evaluate all options as states around the country make decisions regarding redistricting.”
Only one district in Maryland remains in Republican hands.
Still, California could be a significant counter to Republican moves. While maps are still not finalized, one plan that was presented to the congressional delegation this week would wipe away as many as five of the nine House Republicans from California. The affected Republicans could include Representatives Kevin Kiley, Ken Calvert, David Valadao and Darrell Issa, three people familiar with the plans said.
Republican voters could also be drained from the Northern California seat held by Representative Doug LaMalfa, a Republican, to put it into play.
In some ways, it is possible that the Democrats could be going even further. While Texas was trying to draw up to five new Republican seats, the ambitions in California include not just creating the same number of new Democratic seats but also shoring up as many as a half-dozen incumbent Democrats in the state who are in potential battleground districts.
One possible map would pile Representative Young Kim’s Orange County district, now a Republican-leaning seat, with more Republican voters from Southern California to bolster neighboring swing districts with more Democrats.
But enacting a new map in California would be complicated. Unlike in Texas, where politicians control the process, California’s congressional districts have been set by an independent commission that is not allowed to consider partisanship in drawing the lines.
Mr. Newsom has proposed putting that system on hold for the next three elections to help Democrats counter the Republican plan in Texas. He wants the California plan to contain a provision saying that it only goes into effect if Texas approves new maps mid-decade.
“It’s triggered on the basis of what occurs or doesn’t occur in Texas,” Mr. Newsom told reporters on Monday. “I hope they do the right thing, and if they do the right thing, then there’ll be no cause for us to have to move forward.”
The plan is coming together swiftly because California lawmakers will need to vote on it before it can go on the ballot. And Mr. Newsom has said he wants the maps to be complete before voters weigh in.
Legislators in Sacramento must act by Aug. 22 to get the plan on the November ballot, according to the California Secretary of State’s Office.
The Service Employees International Union California, a powerful player in state politics, announced its support for the Democrats’ plan on Tuesday. But groups that supported California’s switch to an independent redistricting system have begun organizing opposition to the potential ballot measure, setting up an expensive and feisty off-year election.
Arnold Schwarzenegger championed the independent redistricting system when he was governor of California and campaigned for similar systems in other states. He signaled recently that he was not happy California could consider a return to partisan gerrymandering, and was preparing to fight back if necessary.
“His thing is gerrymandering is evil everywhere,” said Daniel Ketchell, Mr. Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff. “No matter where it’s done, he opposes it and wants the people to be in charge, not the politicians.”
Mr. Calvert, one of the Republicans targeted, said in a statement that he opposed “the scheme being orchestrated behind closed doors by Sacramento politicians to take constitutionally afforded power away from the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.”
Another threatened Republican, Mr. Kiley, has introduced federal legislation to forbid the type of mid-decade redistricting that Republicans are pushing in Texas and that threatens his seat in California.
“Redistricting is supposed to be done once a decade,” he said in an interview, adding that his bill “will stop this sort of arms race, or redistricting war, from cascading across the country.”
But Democrats who approved the independent commission may now be in a fighting mood. Representative Laura Friedman, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area, said she has received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from constituents when she has mentioned the possibility of mid-decade redistricting at recent events in her district.
“People were saying things like, ‘Finally, the Democrats are fighting back,’” she said. “You cannot wage the fight on your own set of rules when someone else is playing by a different set of rules.”
Beyond California, Lisa Hernandez, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, said Democrats in the state were ready.
“If this is the way they are going to violate what is so precious to our country, our freedom, our rights, we have to fight,” she said of Republicans.
The practical and political reality in Illinois is more complicated than that. Illinois is already one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the country, and in 2021 Democrats redrew the congressional map to eliminate two Republican seats. Democrats now hold 14 of Illinois’s 17 seats.
Ryan Tolley, executive director of Change Illinois, a nonpartisan group that advocates fair elections, said that procedural issues would slow down a push to make a new map, since candidates have already begun collecting petition signatures to appear on the March 17 primary ballot. Mr. Pritzker would also have to call a special session of the Legislature.
In Texas, the partisanship only grew more bitter on Tuesday. In a letter to the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, Mr. Cornyn, a Republican, said that “federal resources are necessary to locate the out-of-state Texas legislators who are potentially acting in violation of the law.”
The agency declined to comment on whether its agents would get involved.
Hours later, the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, said that if the absent Democrats did not return by Friday, he would seek a court order declaring their seats vacant.
The speaker of the Texas House on Monday issued civil warrants for the arrest of absent Democrats. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas then directed the state police to assist the Texas House in executing those civil warrants, suggesting they had violated the state’s anti-bribery laws.
Representative Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat and the party’s leader in the State House, said Mr. Cornyn was “threatening to misuse the F.B.I. in a pathetic attempt to prove his extremist credentials” to his party’s voters. “Good luck with that,” he added.
Mr. Cornyn is engaged in a tough fight for re-election next year with Mr. Paxton, a hard-line conservative popular with the Republican base. Both candidates are seeking Mr. Trump’s support.
On Monday, Mr. Paxton conceded that it would be a “challenge” for Texas law enforcement to arrest the absent Democrats who had fled their jurisdiction.
The accusation by Mr. Abbott of criminal activity this time appeared aimed at increasing the stakes for the Democratic state lawmakers, who, under the rules of the State House, are each already facing fines of $500 per day that they are not present.
Glenn Thrush contributed reporting from Washington. Julie Bosman contributed reporting from Chicago. Robert Chiarito contributed reporting from Aurora, Ill.
Laurel Rosenhall is a Sacramento-based reporter covering California politics and government for The Times.
J. David Goodman is the Houston bureau chief for The Times, reporting on Texas and Oklahoma.
Shane Goldmacher is a Times national political correspondent.
Nick Corasaniti is a Times reporter covering national politics, with a focus on voting and elections.
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