SACROMENTO — California was the center stage in the national political battle over house seating on Friday, with Gov. Gavin Newsom welcoming Democrats in Texas, who thwarted President Trump’s plan to flee his hometown state and redraw his Congressional district.
With its own plan for the gerrymander district, California lawmakers plan to support Democrats and neutralize the Republican seat they won in Texas in 2026.
“No doubt California is moving forward,” the governor said. “We’re talking about emergency measures to address what’s going on in Texas. We’re going to override what’s going on in Texas.”
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He said Democrats still support the state’s independent constituency committee, but they must counter Trump’s plans in the GOP-led state to give the party a better chance in next year’s midterm elections.
“They were of their first blood,” he later added the Republican.
A spokesman for the Trump administration, when asked about the rally, said Newsom is in the spotlight to promote his political ambitions.
“Gavin Newsom is the loser of the highest order and no matter how hard he prostitutes he prostitutes, he will never become president,” spokesman Stephen Chen said.
Friday marks the second time in two weeks when Texas Democrats were standing next to the California governor’s mansion, warning that Republican efforts to draw new maps in their state will dilute the power of black and brown voters.
The Texas Democrats wanted their departure to leave the state legislature with too few members to change the map in a special session. They face $500 fines for each day they are away and the threat of arrest and removal by Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas GOP officials. Several Democrats evacuated from their Chicago hotels they stayed after the bomb threat on Wednesday.
“We are now facing a threat: the threat of losing our jobs, the threat of economic ruin, the threat of we are cornered as our colleagues sit in our hands and remain silent. “As Democrats, we are standing up to ensure that all the voices of voters will be released in this next election and that the next election will not be stolen from them.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco); Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San José), chairman of the California Democratic Congressional delegation; California Senate Speaker Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg); State Senate Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and other elected officials attended the meeting on a show of unity as California Democrats attempt to convince voters in their state to fight back.
Pelosi noted that the state’s congressional delegation is united in supporting a proposal to rezone against Trump.
“The president paved the rose garden. He is paved with free speech. He is paved with free education. [an] Independent judiciary, the rule of law,” Pelosi said. “He’s going too far. We don’t start with what he’s trying to do in Texas, paving a free and fair election in our country.”
She rebutted some arguments – that two mistakes are incorrect.
“This is self-defense for our democracy,” she said.
The California plan calls for state legislatures to approve constitutional amendments that will establish new legislative voting districts created to make GOP members vulnerable.
The bill will pass a special election on November 4th, with California voters temporarily suspending the congressional boundaries created by the independent district change committee in 2021 and determining whether new maps should be adopted for 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.
If approved by voters, the measure includes a “trigger” that specifies that it will only take effect if Texas or other Republican-led states continue to redraw the map to boost the GOP sheet before the midterm elections. California will return to existing rezoning laws after the next census and before the 2032 election.
At least so far, California voters appear to be uncertain as to whether they want to trade Newsom’s plans for the independent rezoning system they previously adopted in their ballot boxes.
An Emerson College poll supported a 33% redrawing of California’s Congressional maps and 25% against them. A survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted on August 4 and 5 found 42% undecided.
Newsom expressed confidence that California voters will regain his plans. He casts it back on Trump’s efforts to “rig” mid-term elections.
“I’m sure people will get it when they know what it is and what it isn’t, and at the end of the day, I think they understand that they’re at the crisis,” Newsmom said Thursday.
Newsom argues that the California process is more transparent than the Trump process. Because voters here look at the map and decide whether the state should proceed with it.
Abbott is trying to redraw his Texas home through a state legislative process that does not require voter approval to meet Trump’s demands for five additional seats. It’s unclear what will happen in Austin, and Democrats have decided to block the effort, and the governor and other Texan Republicans claim they will keep pushing it.
The current special session will end on August 19th. However, in an interview with NBC News Thursday evening, Abbott said, “I vowed to call the special session after the special session after the special session.
In addition to arrests on civil warrants, Democrats face the threat of being removed from their duties. Direct deposit payments to lawmakers have been reduced, and they have to pick up checks directly at the state capitol in Austin or have to go without money.
The battle for changing districts strengthened the national platform of potential newspapers as a presidential candidate in 2028, and strengthened his reputation as a Democrat who is willing to fight Trump and his allies.
Since Trump took office in January, Newsom has been walking the tiny line between calling for the president and working with him in the hopes of joining him to rebuild from California’s wildfires.
However, Newsom grabbed the strict boundaries after Trump deployed the National Guard during a federal immigration raid in Los Angeles in June, urging the governor and his administration to resist the president’s agenda more aggressively.
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