Newsom wants voters to weigh in on new congressional districts in November

Gov. Gavin Newsom is eyeing a special election in the first week of November to ask California voters to sign off on revised U.S. House districts that could boost Democratic prospects in the 2026 midterms.

Though no new seats have been proposed yet, Newsom said Thursday that he is working with the Legislature and congressional representatives on a plan that would temporarily set aside California’s independent redistricting commission and bring an alternative map directly to the public for approval.

“We will go to the people of this state in a transparent way and ask them to consider the new circumstances, to consider these new realities,” Newsom told reporters during a visit to a Sacramento County airfield, where he showed off new state firefighting equipment.

“This is not going to be done in a back room. This is not going to be done by members of some private group or body,” he added. “It’s going to be given to the voters for their consideration in a very transparent way so they know exactly what they’re doing and they can go back in 2030 to original form with our independent redistricting intact.”

It was the most detail the governor has publicly provided so far about how he plans to respond to a burgeoning partisan redistricting war set off by President Donald Trump in recent months.

States last redrew their congressional seats after the 2020 census, to ensure the districts are roughly equal in population, and were not expected to revisit the process for another decade.

But Republican leaders are under growing pressure from Trump to help shore up a narrow GOP majority in Congress ahead of a potentially challenging midterm election. Texas lawmakers are currently rushing to adopt a new congressional map eliminating five Democratic seats, which has sparked similar efforts in other Republican-controlled states and hand-wringing from Democrats about how to counteract it.

Newsom: California must step in

Newsom asserted again Thursday that California must pause independent redistricting, which he has previously supported, to fight a president that “wants to rig the game” against Democrats, who could potentially block Trump’s agenda if they win control of the House in 2026.

“De facto the Trump presidency ends in November of next year if the American people are given a fair chance and a voice and a choice,” Newsom said.

While most other states give redistricting authority to their legislatures, California uses a bipartisan citizen commission created by voters through a ballot measure. So to usurp the commission and implement more Democratic-leaning districts, Newsom must call a statewide special election and go back to the voters.

Democrats currently hold 43 of the state’s 52 House seats, including several competitive districts that flipped from Republican control last November.

The governor said he wants to hold the election on the first Tuesday in November because many communities already have local elections scheduled then. That could make it easier to mount on short notice and help reduce an estimated price tag of more than $200 million — though Newsom also said “there’s too much at stake” to worry about the cost.

“How much did it cost to have the theatrics with the National Guard and Trump?” he said, referring to the president’s recent deployment of thousands of troops in Los Angeles to quell immigration-related protests. “How many hundreds of millions of dollars was wasted?”

The November target gives California an extremely tight window to act. State law requires county elections offices to send a mail ballot to every registered voter a month before election day; military and overseas voter ballots and voter information guides go out 15 days before that. The material would need to be ready by late September to meet those deadlines.

Meanwhile, the Legislature is on summer recess until Aug. 18. The Democratic caucuses of the state Senate and Assembly are expected to begin private discussions next week about advancing a ballot measure, which requires a two-thirds majority in both houses, so that they could potentially pass it before the end of August.

Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, said the Assembly will review its options to counteract Trump’s redistricting scheme and “ensure our government remains fair, transparent and representative of the people.”

“This move is an attempt to silence voters who reject MAGA extremism — including here in California, where the people have spoken loud and clear in two national elections,” Rivas said in a statement.