California Democrats are pushing through a series of bills on Thursday to forward Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to redistrict the state.
Mr. Newsom is asking state lawmakers to approve a plan to spend up to $250 million on a November special election to approve new districts. He hopes to increase the number of likely Democratic-controlled congressional districts in the state by five.
Votes were taking place in both the state assembly and state senate on Thursday afternoon and the bills were all but assured of passing along party lines.
The move would sideline an independent redistricting commission that sets the maps in California after the national census every decade. After the 2030 Census, the redistricting commission will resume its job of drawing congressional maps, according to the legislation.
The redistricting plan is being touted as a countermeasure to Texas, which is redrawing its lines ahead of the 2026 midterm election in a bid to swing five districts to Republican from Democrat.
President Trump has asked Republican states to redistrict to make sure the party retains control of Congress for the remainder of his administration.
Mr. Trump says Missouri will soon join the redistricting fight. “The Great State of Missouri is now IN. I’m not surprised,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
“It is a great State with fabulous people. I won it, all 3 times, in a landslide. We’re going to win the Midterms in Missouri again, bigger and better than ever before!” Mr. Trump wrote in his Truth Social message.
The likely path for the Missouri GOP to add one seat in the House would be to “crack up” a deeply blue district, which is based around Kansas City.
The Trump administration is also pressuring Indiana Republicans to redistrict. That could draw more Democrat-controlled states to retaliate.
Maryland, Illinois, New York, and Oregon are among the Democratic states pondering redistricting, though they have fewer potential pickups than the Republicans.
Discussion about this post