Gavin Newsom should stop blaming Texas. Man up, redistrict and combat Trump | Opinion
For the last several weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom has worked overtime selling his idea to conduct a rare midterm redrawing of congressional districts.
His idea was spurred, he says, by Texas state legislators currently taking up a call by President Donald Trump to create five more seats for Republicans to win. That way, Trump and the GOP stand a better chance to maintain control of the House of Representatives, and thus enable the president’s agenda to succeed in the final two years of his term.
Right now, the GOP has 219 seats in the House to Democrats’ 212. For any important GOP legislation to pass, nearly all Republicans must vote in support.
“We’re reacting to the president of the United States and (Texas Gov.) Greg Abbott trying to rig the election,” Newsom told reporters last month in explaining why redrawing congressional districts in California needed to be done now. Typically, redrawing is done every 10 years after the new census is done.
This week Newsom sent a letter to Trump in which the governor pledged to end the California effort if Trump would get Republican-led states like Texas to do the same.
But linking any California redistricting to what GOP states do misses the point. Newsom’s overarching goal is to flip the House back to Democratic control so as to oppose Trump’s agenda based on his Make America Great Again principles.
Newsom should stop using Texas as an excuse. If the goal is to oppose Trump, just put a redistricting proposal before the voters to send more Democrats to Congress.
I join many critics of such a plan for how it would subjugate California’s citizens commission that draws political boundaries every decade. The commission was created by a vote of Californians in 2008, and its maps are recognized as among the politically fairest in the nation precisely because they were not drawn by elected officials with vested interests.
But without question, Republican-led gerrymandering — the partisan drawing of political districts — has run amok since the last census and created an unfair playing field nationally. Trump and Texas lawmakers are trying to extend that even more.
Texas gerrymandering
Not all states use a citizens commission to draw political boundaries. In Midwest and Southern states, such lines are drawn by elected leaders in GOP majorities.
“Both parties engaged in gerrymandering after the 2020 census, but, overall, the bias in this cycle’s maps strongly favors Republicans due primarily to aggressive gerrymandering in GOP strongholds in the South and Midwest,” says the Brennan Center for Justice. The center is a nonpartisan law and policy organization seeking to reform America’s democracy and justice.
“It is no surprise that the effects of gerrymandering tilt in favor of the GOP. This decade, as last, Republicans disproportionately controlled the redistricting process, drawing 191 (or 44 percent) of the districts that will be used in this year’s elections. By contrast, Democrats fully controlled the drawing of only 75 districts. The rest were drawn by commissions, courts, or divided governments,” the center adds in its analysis.
There is no shortage of reasons for Californians to want to oppose Trump. Here are just a few examples of his attacks on the Golden State:
- Roundups of undocumented people by mask-covered ICE agents have broken apart families and left employers without workers. The majority of those arrested in California without documentation have no criminal histories.
- The state’s farmers in particular are struggling to find enough workers to harvest crops, putting their livelihood at risk.
- Trump is ending a program to give federal tax credits to buyers of electric vehicles and has championed efforts in Congress and his administration to kill California’s authority over air-quality standards. California motorists have purchased the most EVs nationally, with the tax credit being a major benefit, and the state has long had authority over its air standards due to its decades-old battle against smog.
- Trump has told UCLA he will resume federal funding for research if it pays $1 billion for not protecting Jewish students well enough during Gaza war demonstration by Palestinian protestors. The word for this arrangement: extortion.
Beating Trump agenda
For the Democratic party to regain power, influence and win elections, it must develop a strong message on how the party will benefit middle-class Americans on pocketbook issues. It also needs strong candidates, likely by letting older veteran Democrats retire to applause while elevating good young newcomers.
As Trump’s economic policies based on import tariffs play out, the cost of goods Americans pay will rise. Trump got elected on his promise to improve the financial standing of average Americans. If that does not happen, Trump will pay with Republican losses in next year’s elections.
That could give Democrats a majority in the House regardless of redistricting gambits played in California, Texas or elsewhere.
Until then, Newsom should put a redistricting plan before the state’s voters and own it. No more blaming Texas.
This story was originally published August 14, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
