Newsom tells Trump there’s a way out of this redistricting battle

Gov. Gavin Newsom is offering President Donald Trump an out of his expedited redistricting plan, promising to back off a Democratic gerrymander if red states aiming to pick up Republican seats ahead of the 2026 midterm election do the same.

In a letter sent to Trump on Monday, Newsom said he would call off his effort to enact special California congressional maps favoring Democrats if Trump directs Texas to abandon its new “hyperpartisan” maps that could flip five seats for Republicans.

“You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make,” Newsom wrote in the letter. “Attempting 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 has been threatening to move forward with a mid-decade redistricting plan since July, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the state’s legislature into a special session to redraw congressional maps for 2026. The move breaks from states’ regular redistricting schedule, which calls for revising congressional lines at the start of each decade based on the U.S. Census.

While voting maps in Texas — and many states — are determined by their legislatures, California’s are drawn by an independent, citizen-led commission made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. For Newsom’s plan to become reality, Californians would have to vote to approve temporarily ditching the commission-drafted districts in favor of new ones drawn up by the Legislature for the next three election cycles.

Attendees view a map during a Senate Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting public testimony hearing on Aug.7, 2025, in Austin, Texas. Last week, Texas Democratic lawmakers fled the state in an attempt to protest and deny quorum for votes on the proposed Republican redistricting plan, leading Gov. Greg Abbott to threaten to remove lawmakers who do not return and ask the Texas Supreme Court to expel House Democratic leaders who fled the state.

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Newsom has a short runway, since the secretary of state’s office has given representatives a deadline of Aug. 22 to approve a November special election measure to temporarily enact maps redrawn by the Legislature for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.

Garnering enough voter support in just a few months could be difficult, and even if the measure passes, lawmakers would likely have to pass additional legislation to ensure new maps would only be drawn if red states’ gerrymandered maps move forward. The Legislature would also have to approve the redrawn congressional lines.

At the same time, Rep. Kevin Kiley, a Republican who represents areas northeast of Sacramento and a large stretch of the Eastern Sierra and would likely be vulnerable to losing his seat under gerrymandered maps, is mounting a fight against mid-decade redistricting nationwide.

Some of California’s Democratic state representatives were also initially skeptical of the plan.

Voters overwhelmingly favored California’s independent redistricting commission when a 2010 ballot measure created it, and many believe the nonpartisan model is the best way to ensure fair elections.

But Newsom picked up momentum on Friday, when Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who represents the South Bay and heads California’s Democratic congressional caucus, announced that he had the unanimous support of the state’s Democratic lawmakers.

“We cannot stand here and just shrug as Trump and the Republicans try to rig the rules so they can avoid responsibility for the damage that they have done to this country,” she said at a press conference, standing alongside Texas’s Democratic state representatives, who fled last week to try to stall a vote on their state’s redrawn maps.

Newsom said in Monday’s letter that he believes in independent redistricting but would not back down from a fight to neutralize Republicans’ gains in red states if they move forward. The Trump administration has yet to respond publicly.

“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,” Newsom wrote. “But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.”