California: Newsom, Democrats pass bill to put new congressional map to a vote

A day after the Texas House of Representatives approved a new district map that will favor Republicans in the 2026 midterms, California Democrats and Gov. Gavin Newsom accelerated the pace to enact a bill that puts a new congressional map to a vote that will directly benefit the Democratic Party next year.

Now, California's new electoral map is in the hands of voters, who must decide at the polls whether or not to accept the new district boundaries next November.

According to special projections, the new electoral maps of California and Texas will add five seats in the federal House of Representatives for Democrats and Republicans respectively. In Texas, the Senate has yet to approve the map and Texas Governor Greg Abbott has yet to sign it. There is no doubt that step will happen.

In the law enacted today by Newsom, power is taken away from the independent commission that is charged with objectively and nonpartisanly drawing district lines, giving the power directly to the voters. In contrast, in Texas, no election is needed to change the congressional maps.

Both Texas Republicans and California Democrats are being criticized for submitting new electoral maps for partisan purposes. This practice, commonly referred to as gerrymandering, has been applied by both parties over the past several years.

Democrats have justified their proposal as a direct response to the Texas map pushed by President Donald Trump. Republicans, on the other hand, argue that demographic changes justify redrawing districts.

Texas Republican lawmakers have also exposed that Democrats have carried out the exact same practice in the past in other states, calling their opponents' criticism a double standard.

“We don’t want this fight and we didn’t choose this fight, but with our democracy on the line, we will not run away from this fight,” California Democratic lawmaker Marc Berman justified. 

California Republicans, meanwhile, vowed to continue fighting the proposal after filing a legal complaint and a federal investigation into the matter.

California Assembly Republican Minority Leader James Gallagher, in fact, claimed that President Trump was "wrong" to push for new electoral maps to add Republican seats in various states, arguing that the president was responding to partisan gerrymandering by Democrats in other states.

However, Gallagher warned that Newsom's battleground approach to fighting the Texas electoral map was dangerous.

"You move forward fighting fire with fire and what happens? You burn it all down," the Republican lawmaker asserted.

In addition to California and Texas, there are at least six states — Illinois, New York, Florida, Missouri, Ohio and Indiana — whose officials are evaluating how to redistrict their congressional districts for partisan purposes.