California Governor Gavin Newsom has fired back at Texas’s controversial redistricting efforts, signing legislation that redraws the Golden State’s congressional maps in a strategy to counter the state’s gerrymandering.
California voters will have the opportunity to decide on new legislation this November that involves approving a redistricting map specifically crafted to help Democrats secure five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives during the upcoming midterm elections. Governor Newsom promptly signed this legislation into law following a largely partisan vote by state lawmakers who approved the measure.
The newly redrawn maps came to a vote after a push from the governor, who has been engaged in a tit-for-tat conflict with President Trump over his support for Texas’s redistricting efforts.
“This is not something six weeks ago that I ever imagined that I’d be doing,” Mr. Newsom said at a press conference after signing the new measure. “This is a reaction to an assault on our democracy in Texas.”
The new measure followed the Texas House’s passage of a Republican redistricting plan by an 88-52 vote, which came after a dramatic two-week standoff in which Democratic lawmakers fled the state to block the legislation.
California Republicans have filed a lawsuit and called for a federal investigation into the new plan.
California assemblyman James Gallagher, the Republican minority leader, criticized Mr. Trump’s push for new GOP seats in other states as “wrong,” but argues the president was merely reacting to Democratic gerrymandering nationwide. He also warned that Newsom’s “fight fire with fire” strategy poses serious risks.
“You move forward fighting fire with fire, and what happens?” He said to The Associated Press. “You burn it all down.”
While Texas’s redrawn maps have made progress through the legislative process in the Lone Star State, they still require a final vote from the Republican-controlled state Senate. Although the plan successfully advanced out of committee on Thursday, it was not brought to the floor for a vote, with the Senate scheduled to reconvene on Friday.
Once approved, all that will be needed is for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to sign off and make the map official.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
