“Today is Liberation Day in the State of California,” Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday, as he formally launched an ambitious campaign that would redraw maps in the Democratic state to counter Republican gerrymandering efforts in Texas.
At the campaign launch in Little Tokyo, Newsom followed through on his warning to President Donald Trump, spearheading a plan to hold special elections in the Golden State in November. The vote, if the legislature approves, would allow the state to seek California approval to redraw its congressional district maps if another state pushes through with redistricting.
Newsom said California’s redistricting plan was a direct response to Trump’s plans to “rig the system” and secure future Republican election victories. “It’s not good enough to just hold hands, have a candlelight vigil, and talk about the way the world should be,” he said. “We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we have got to meet fire with fire.”
The plan escalates a multi-state political standoff, as Republicans hope to keep their slim majority in Congress after 2026 midterms and Democrats hope to break Trump’s control of the federal government.
As Border Patrol officials swarmed outside Newsom’s event Thursday, in an apparent show of force against his efforts to lead an anti-Trump resistance movement, Newsom said he will “not be intimidated.” Several attendees carried “Defend Democracy” placards, while Newsom and multiple speakers spoke at a podium that read “Election Rigging Response Act.” A new website for a campaign with the same name shows financial backing from the House Democrats’ principal super PAC and Democratic megadonor Bill Bloomfield.
The campaign’s launch comes as Texas’ Democratic lawmakers, who have fled their state in protest of a redistricting push led by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, have indicated that they plan to head home upon the advice of their lawyers. Their return, which could come as early as Monday, may pave the way for the Republican redistricting plan to push through in Texas, though the Democrats also cited California’s initiative, which they said would “neutralize” Texas’, as a reason to go back. Trump earlier said that Republicans “are entitled to five more seats” in Congress.
The California Governor also urged other blue states to “stand up” against Republican congressional redistricting plans. “We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear, district by district all across this country,” he said.
Newsom—who is seen as a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination—then appeared to direct his message to the rest of the U.S.: “I hope we are waking up to this reality. Wake up America. Wake up to what Donald Trump is doing. Wake up to his assault. Wake up to the assault on institutions and knowledge and history. Wake up to his war on science, public health. His war against the American people.”
California’s redistricting plan
On Monday, California’s legislature—which is exactly three-quarters Democratic—plans to introduce several bills ahead of the November election. Under proposed legislation, the state would retain its Citizens Redistricting Commission—an independent commission currently composed of five Democrats, five Republicans, and four independents, which has drawn congressional district maps since 2010. But this commission’s maps would be temporarily replaced—until 2030—by maps that the state’s Democratic supermajority legislature draws if Republican-led states like Texas go ahead with their own partisan redistricting plans.
The legislative package will also contain a bill calling for a special election on Nov. 4, 2025, for Californians to approve or reject this plan as well as a bill to reimburse counties for administering the special election.
The Democrats’ new maps have yet to be released, and Newsom said they will come out “in the next few days.” But California is aiming to flip five GOP seats in direct response to five seats Texas Republicans wish to secure in their redistricting.
Politico obtained a chart outlining which Republican districts are targeted in the plan. Though not final, the list reveals that the state’s 1st, 3rd, and 41st districts may be completely flipped from safe Republican seats to safe Democratic seats, while six other seats, including one held by a Republican, will tilt further in the Democratic direction.
The uphill battle ahead
While Newsom said he was confident in California’s legislative leaders to pass the package, it won’t necessarily be easy.
California’s Secretary of State imposed an Aug. 22 deadline for lawmakers to vote on the bill and declare that a special election will take place. This means the bills will have to sprint through California’s legislature, getting the approval of lawmakers in both chambers, right after they’ve returned following a summer recess.
Redistricting the blue state would also be an expensive undertaking. In a letter responding to questions from Republican Rep. Ken Calvert, whose district is at risk of being flipped, the Riverside County registrar of voters said that it could cost the county up to $16 million to hold the special election. CBS reported that the special election could cost up to $4 million in San Joaquin County and up to $6.8 million in Sacramento County.
And those millions could be spent on an initiative that so far seems unpopular among the state’s residents: a recent poll by Politico and the Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research showed that California voters prefer the current independent commission over Newsom’s plan to have the legislature redraw the maps.
Also complicating Newsom’s efforts is a well-funded opposition. The independent commission was considered a bipartisan triumph when it was first created in 2008, under then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who has since opposed Trump. The reform aimed at removing political bias from the democratic process was bankrolled by Charles Munger Jr., a Palo Alto physicist and son of the late billionaire Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner.
Today, Munger looks set to challenge Newsom’s effort : in a post on an X account created just last month, he said: “Any attempt to undermine the nonpartisan California Redistricting Commission will be strongly opposed in the courts and at the ballot box.” Amy Thoma Tan, a spokesperson for Munger, said in a statement that he “will vigorously defend the reforms he helped pass.” Tan added that Munger’s previous successes show that they “have the resources necessary” to counter Newsom’s gerrymandering efforts. According to Politico, Munger has already recruited consultants to kickstart his opposition campaign.
Schwarzenegger could also be a powerful spokesperson against the movement. “He calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that,” Schwarzenegger spokesperson Daniel Ketchell told Politico. “He’s opposed to what Texas is doing, and he’s opposed to the idea that California would race to the bottom to do the same thing.”
Texas Democrats to head home
The Texas House Democratic Caucus had said that they would return home after California lawmakers introduced their redistricting proposal, and after the legislative session that Texas Gov. Abbott called ends Friday.
State Rep. Gene Wu, the House Democratic leader, said that “as Democrats across the nation join our fight to cause these maps to fail their political purpose, we’re prepared to bring this battle back to Texas under the right conditions and to take this fight to the courts.”
The Texas Democratic lawmakers fled in a bid to prevent their state’s legislature from achieving the required quorum to advance the Republicans’ redistricting plans. Abbott threatened them with arrest and removal from office and has said that he will call for another special session with the exact same agenda to make sure that the Texas redistricting plan moves forward.
“There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them,” Abbott said. “I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed.”
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