Newsom Calls for Special Election to Redraw California’s Congressional Maps

Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to give California voters “the power to stand up to [President Donald] Trump,” in what amounted to a campaign kickoff on Thursday for a November ballot measure to redraw the state’s congressional lines.

Newsom is asking voters to approve new district lines that would open the door for Democrats to win five additional House seats in California. The measure is a direct response to a gerrymandering effort in Texas, directed by Trump and other Republican-led states.

The battle over political maps is the latest flash point between Trump and Newsom. As the governor spoke inside the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, Customs and Border Protection agents patrolled the plaza outside.

With fellow Democrats in the state Legislature now on board with the redistricting plan, Newsom is turning his attention to the larger challenge ahead: convincing California voters to set aside a political map drawn by an independent commission in favor of a plan aimed at helping Democrats retake the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026.

“Donald Trump does not play fair, you’ve seen that over and over again,” Newsom said. “I’m just not going to sit back and be complicit, and I don’t think the people of the state of California are going to be complicit this November.”

A POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab survey released Thursday signaled potential hesitancy among voters to follow Newsom’s call. The poll found 64% of California voters support keeping the independent commission, compared to 36% who want to hand congressional redistricting to the state Legislature.

The poll’s question was framed around the role of the commission, which was created by voters in 2008 and given the power to draw House district lines in 2010. Supporters of the independent maps have praised the commission’s inclusive process and credited the system with fostering competitive congressional elections in the state.

But Newsom’s campaign will instead focus on the political stakes for Democrats and the opportunity to provide a check on Trump by breaking the Republican hold on Congress. Roughly 60% of California voters regularly support Democrats in statewide elections, and the Nov. 4 vote could give restless Democratic voters an opportunity to hit back at the GOP.

“This isn’t about redistricting,” Los Angeles Assemblymember Isaac Bryan said. “This is about whether we will let the authoritarian in the White House break our democracy while we sit silent.”

In a video posted on X by Newsom’s press office, more than a dozen CBP agents appeared to gather outside the rally. In the recording, CBP El Centro Sector Chief Gregory Bovino said his officers were “here making Los Angeles a safer place. Since we don’t have politicians that will do that, we do that ourselves.”

In response to questions about CBP’s presence at the event, a spokesperson referred KQED to a post on X by Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, who wrote that CBP “patrols all areas of Los Angeles every day with over 40 teams on the ground to make LA safe.”

Inside the rally, leaders of California’s powerful labor unions appeared alongside the governor and other elected Democrats, and promised to throw their financial and organizing heft behind the redistricting measure.

The campaign against the redistricting measure could be a coalition of unlikely bedfellows.

California Republicans are united against the idea, as the new maps could pose political peril for the party’s nine-member congressional caucus. Also in opposition: The League of Women Voters and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who led the push to create the independent commission.

“Voters created the independent commission to block this kind of insider scheme,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said in a statement. “Newsom wants to tear it up to help his political allies rig the maps for the next decade.”

Financial muscle could come from Charles Munger Jr., a longtime Republican donor who bankrolled the 2008 and 2010 redistricting measures. Earlier this week, Munger relaunched a campaign committee to oppose Newsom’s measure.

“Charles Munger will vigorously defend the reforms he helped pass, including nonpartisan redistricting,” Munger spokesperson Amy Thoma Tan said in a statement. “His previous success in passing ballot measures in California means he knows exactly what is needed to be successful. We will have the resources necessary to make our coalition heard.”

The proposed congressional map, which Newsom said will last through the 2030 election, will be released as soon as Friday. The state Legislature will vote on the map and a constitutional amendment placing the issue on the ballot when the Senate and Assembly return from summer recess on Monday.

The Secretary of State’s office has given lawmakers an Aug. 22 deadline to call a special election for Nov. 4. Newsom and Democratic leaders have said there will be language in the proposal that will nullify California’s map change if Republican-led states drop their gerrymandering efforts.

The Legislature’s vote to place the map measure on the ballot appears to be a foregone conclusion. Newsom’s campaign arm released a video on Thursday that asks voters to support the “Election Rigging Response Act” on Nov. 4.