(Image Credit: IMAGN) California Gov. Gavin Newsom goes into the spin room at the Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023.
Sacramento, California – California Governor Gavin Newsom is once again positioning himself as a counterweight to red-state Republican power, firing a warning shot at President Donald Trump and Texas lawmakers over a proposed congressional redistricting plan that could net Republicans several new seats ahead of the 2026 midterms.
In a post on X responding to a report that Trump supports a new map in Texas designed to add five Republican seats, Newsom offered a terse response: “Two can play this game.”
The comment, delivered with characteristic bluntness, signals Newsom’s growing frustration with what Democrats describe as aggressive Republican gerrymandering tactics — and his willingness to challenge them, even as California’s own redistricting process is supposed to be out of his hands.
Trump, speaking to reporters Tuesday, confirmed he wants to see Texas “pick up five seats” through what he called a “very simple redrawing” of district lines. That plan, reportedly under discussion among Texas Republicans ahead of a July 21 special legislative session, would likely target Democrats in suburban areas around Dallas and Houston, as well as two vulnerable South Texas incumbents representing districts Trump carried in 2024.
The move is raising alarms among national Democrats, who are cautiously optimistic about flipping the House next November but could see their path to a majority narrowed by GOP-controlled state legislatures redrawing the map in their favor. In that context, California — with 52 congressional seats, 43 of which are held by Democrats — looms large as both a firewall and a potential political weapon.
Yet Newsom’s ability to act is limited. Unlike Texas, California’s congressional maps are drawn by an independent citizens’ commission, established by a 2010 ballot initiative and enshrined in the state constitution. That structural barrier hasn’t stopped Newsom from publicly questioning its fairness in a national environment where, he argues, Democrats are playing by a different set of rules.
“Republicans are not interested in process. They’re interested in power,” Newsom told The Tennessee Holler last week. “So why are we still pretending this is a fair fight?”
Some Democrats agree. Rep. Laura Friedman, a state lawmaker from Glendale, wrote that California “can lead the nation” in fighting back against the “crass & selfish strategy to undermine democracy.”
But the commission isn’t backing down. Sara Sadhwani, one of its current members, told The San Francisco Chronicle that while she understands the governor’s frustration, “the people of California have made it clear” that the governor does not have redistricting authority.
For now, the power struggle remains rhetorical. But as Texas Republicans prepare to redraw their map and more states revisit their boundaries, California’s role in the larger battle over congressional control is sure to intensify — even if the governor is legally boxed in.
