California Governor Gavin Newsom sent a letter to the White House Monday beckoning President Donald Trump to ensure that Texas stop its redistricting efforts or else the state of California will do the same.
According to Politico, California Democrats are “coalescing around a plan to draw a half-dozen Republican incumbents into oblivion — and persuade California voters to approve the new congressional maps before next year’s midterms.”
Newsom first expressed his disagreement with Texas’s redistricting efforts in July. On August 8, he hosted the Texas lawmakers who chose not to vote in the quorum on the matter and evade the state in protest of redistricting.
“You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that Califomia can neutralize any gains you hope to make,” Newsom wrote to Trump, who supports Texas redistricting along with other states. “This attempt to rig congressional maps to hold onto power before a single vote is cast in the 2026 election is an affront to American democracy.”
Newsom declared that his state would reluctantly re-district its congressional map, as an act of avoiding the perceived lesser of two evils.
“This is not what the Founders envisioned, and California cannot stand idly by as this power grab unfolds. I do not do this lightly, as I believe legislative district maps should be drawn by independent, citizen-led efforts, as we have done in California for the last two decades,” he stated. “If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states. But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.”
President Trump has not yet responded to Newsom’s letter.
