How Stanislaus County could be affected by California’s redistricting standoff
Stanislaus County is among the areas affected by potential California redistricting – moving places that were “toss-ups” in the last election into solidly blue territory. Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for a special election to authorize mid-decade congressional redistricting in direct retaliation to Texas doing the same.
“We’re doing it in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor and said, ‘Find me five seats,” Newsom said in an Aug. 14 news conference.
Under normal circumstances, California redistricts once every 10 years through an independent commission based on the most recent census.
“The only reason Texas is changing the rules now is because President Trump believes that his party can’t win under our current system,” Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, told The Modesto Bee. “It’s difficult to take my colleagues across the aisle seriously when they crow about election rigging and deep state plots and then turn around and do things like what we’re seeing in Texas. It’s unserious and it’s damaging to our democracy.”
Drawing maps to favor one party over another is “gerrymandering.” Both Texas and California at this point are being transparent about the intent to redistrict to concentrate the power of one party over another.
In California, unlike in Texas, the departure from the decade-by-decade system requires a special election to authorize the action Nov. 4.
The proposed remapping would benefit some Democrats, such as Gray, who won the District 13 seat last year with just 187 votes. He would gain a larger section of central Stockton – part of Josh Harder’s District 9 – and would add Salida and a portion of central Modesto.
Harder would lose those sections of Stockton but gain the community of Antioch closer to the Bay Area.
Republican Rep. Tom McClintock’s District 5 would remain a heavily red area and expand to the east. Locally, he would lose a section of central Modesto and gain Escalon and the northern section of the town of Empire.
Both Harder and McClintock did not respond to a request for comment.
Newsom said the decision to redistrict would be temporary and limited. “We will affirm our commitment to the state’s redistricting committee for the 2030 census, but we’re asking the voters to consent to do midterm redistricting in 2026, 2028 and 2030 for congressional maps to respond to what’s happening in Texas, to respond to what Trump is trying to incite,” the governor said.
The ACLU previously has argued that gerrymandering hinders the ability of voters to choose their politicians and instead allows politicians to choose their voters. Arguments to that effect were made as dozens of Democrats in the Texas Legislature walked out to prevent a House quorum from forming for a period of two weeks. They’ve since returned to Texas, some under duress.
Redistricting is described in Article 1 Section 2 of the Constitution. Each state handles its redistricting efforts differently. In Texas, for example, redistricting is run by the state Legislature. But the general basis of each state having at least one representative and apportioning the regions by population is the same.
California’s Citizen Redistricting Commission independent committee was given the task of drawing congressional maps in 2010. It is composed of active voters whose party affiliation has not changed in five years.
State office-holders who represents Stanislaus County residents, such as District 22 Assemblymember Juan Alanis, are against the push for redistricting. The Republican said in part in a statement: “My colleagues in the majority are undermining the principles of representative democracy and the clear will of California voters, who do not want elected politicians to draw the lines in this state. I will not be supporting any of these shameful retaliatory mid-decade redistricting bills, and I urge both California and Texas to stop playing gerrymandering games and start putting the people first.”
California Senator for District 4, Republican Marie Alvarado-Gil, also criticized the move in a statement sent to constituents: “This power grab is purely driven by the governor’s presidential ambitions and not by what benefits Californians or the state itself,” she said. “Californians deserve a voice in how their districts are drawn, not backroom deal-making.”
On Aug. 19, the California Republican Party petitioned the state Supreme Court to issue an emergency stay on the call for a special election, but the court rejected the case.
Newsom signed the plan to call for a special election on redistricting August 21. Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters Donna Linder said voters will have a one-item ballot to determine the fate of the redistricting plan, which can be cast beginning Oct. 25.
This story was originally published August 20, 2025 at 3:10 PM.
