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Gavin Newsom floats November special election for his anti-Trump redistricting push

Gavin Newsom floats November special election for his anti-Trump redistricting push
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/0...cting-00487541

The governor has vigorously embraced the party’s push to counter a GOP-friendly Texas gerrymander by buoying Democrats in blue states.

“I’m not going to sit back any longer in the fetal position, a position of weakness, when in fact California can demonstrably advance strength," Gov. Gavin Newsom said. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

By*Jeremy B. White07/31/2025 06:05 PM EDT

SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday he will seek to call a November special election to have voters approve new House maps that boost Democrats.

By embracing a public vote, Newsom teed up*a nationalized contest*that opens a prominent front in national Democrats’ efforts to thwart President Donald Trump’s agenda. Newsom has vigorously embraced the party’s push to counter a GOP-friendly Texas gerrymander by buoying Democrats in blue states like California, arguing Trump has left the party no choice.

“I’m not going to sit back any longer in the fetal position, a position of weakness, when in fact California can demonstrably advance strength,” Newsom said at an unrelated news conference.

It would be an enormously expensive and politically perilous campaign. Newsom would be counting on Democrats’ anti-Trump message overcoming voters’ reluctance to return power to politicians for an explicitly partisan exercise.

Newsom and his allies would need to raise monumental sums on a tight timeline so they could inform and turn out voters. And while they could tap into a national network, Trump and conservative opponents could be motivated to wade into the race to rebuke Newsom and the national party.

State lawmakers would also need to go along with the plan. Putting a measure on the ballot would require a two-thirds vote in both houses of the Legislature, and while Democrats wield the necessary supermajorities, Newsom is pushing them into uncertain political terrain.

Sacramento would likely draw new maps in coordination with California’s House delegation, seeking to make Republican-held seats more competitive for Democratic challengers without shifting so many voters out of other districts that it imperils frontline Democrats.

The governor’s remarks were his most detailed yet since*he first vowed to counter Texas’ GOP-buoying gerrymander*by having California redraw its boundaries. Newsom had formerly said he was also considering having the Democratic-dominated Legislature simply draw new maps, circumventing the voters who enshrined an independent commission in 2010.

But Newsom backed away from that option Thursday, signaling he would prefer to put the issue to voters. He said the new maps would remain in place for the next three election cycles, after which the commission would draw new lines as scheduled.

“We’re not here to eliminate the [independent redistricting] commission,” Newsom said. “We’re here to provide a pathway in ’26, ’28, and in 2030 for congressional maps on the basis of a response to the rigging of the system of the president of the United States.”