California Democrats look to redraw house map to counter Texas GOP

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 Rep. Robert Garcia, D-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 the president 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, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked the FBI 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 FBI should get involved, Trump told reporters 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,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said 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.”

Republicans may have more cards to play in an all-out redistricting war in 2026 than Democrats do. Republican leaders are looking to redraw maps in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio as well as Texas, and perhaps in more states. Vice President JD Vance plans to visit Indiana to discuss the push Thursday, the state’s Republican governor, Mike Braun, told reporters Tuesday.

In the meantime, House maps and redistricting laws in Democratic states present significant hurdles. Illinois, for instance, is so skewed to Democrats that flipping even one of the three Republican seats left would be extremely difficult for mapmakers.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned Monday that restrictions on redistricting in the state would most likely mean new maps could not be adopted until 2027. David Turner, a spokesperson for Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland, said this week that 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 Republican seats from California. The affected Republicans could include Rep. 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 Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican, to put it into play.

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.

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,” Newsom told reporters 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 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 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, 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.”

But Democrats who approved the independent commission may now be in a fighting mood. Rep. 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.”

In Texas, the partisanship grew only more bitter Tuesday. In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, Cornyn 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, Texas 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.

Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, the party’s leader in the state House, said Cornyn was “threatening to misuse the FBI in a pathetic attempt to prove his extremist credentials” to his party’s voters. “Good luck with that,” he added.

Later Tuesday, Abbott filed an emergency petition with the Texas Supreme Court seeking the removal of Wu from office. The governor argued that by his absence, Wu had “forfeited the office of state representative.”

The action was in addition to one threatened earlier by Paxton.

“This office does not belong to Greg Abbott, and it does not belong to me,” Wu said in response. “It belongs to the people of House District 137, who elected me.”

Cornyn is engaged in a tough fight for reelection next year with Paxton, a hard-line conservative popular with the Republican base. Both candidates are seeking Trump’s support.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.