Should California redraw congressional districts to derail Trump? It may have to | Opinion

In 2010, California voters decided to take redistricting — a process mired in politics — out of the hands of elected officials.

An amendment to the California Constitution gave that responsibility to a bipartisan commission of citizens, who meet every 10 years after the national census is done. Their job: draw the lines for representation to Congress, state Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization.

Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to inject politics back into redistricting. He recently began a public-relations campaign to convince the state’s voters of the urgent need to make new districts so as to increase the Democrats’ congressional number.

Giving voters the choice to redistrict is more democratic — in this extreme circumstance — than none at all.

Newsom is reacting to President Donald Trump’s call for Texas to redraw boundaries to create five or so new Republican-majority congressional districts by next year’s midterm election. The goal is to maintain Republican control of the House of Representatives so Trump’s agenda can succeed in the final years of his term.

Currently, Republicans have just a seven-seat majority in the House, which means nearly every GOP member has to back any controversial bill supported by Trump for it to succeed, assuming all Democrats vote no.

Taking redistricting away from the citizens commission would be an earth-shaking move. Voters already made clear more than a decade ago that they had had enough of legislators trying to draw the lines. The clear choice was to let citizens make districts that more fairly represent residents living in them.

But Newsom’s arguments now are compelling. Trump has made it clear he has no intention of producing policies that the majority of Californians would support on issues like climate change, transgender rights or immigration. Trump lost to Democrat Kamala Harris by 20 points in California last year.

Suspending the citizens commission would have to be approved by voters in a special election. And, ideally, the ballot measure would make clear that it would be only temporary.

To avert more Trumpian chaos, Democrats must win back the House, Newsom argues. That will take more congressional Democrats, and California is the state to make that happen, he believes.

“If we don’t put a stake into the heart of this administration, there may not be an election in 2028,” Newsom told reporters after meeting with Democrats from the Texas statehouse. “They’re (Republicans) not screwing around. We can’t afford to screw around either. We have got to fight fire with fire.”

Understandably, California’s GOP congressional delegation opposes any such effort.

“A partisan political gerrymander is not what the voters of California want as they clearly stated when they passed the Voters First Act and participated in the Citizens Redistricting Commission process,” the GOP statement says.

Without question, letting politicians draw their own boundaries is a bad idea and California established an antidote for it. But Newsom is right about the threat Trump and the GOP present to democracy if they are allowed to gerrymander congressional districts in Texas to maintain GOP majorities in Congress. Such a move would demonstrate that Trump cares far less about the will of voters than he does maintaining power.

This is a threat that Americans can’t ignore.

Challenge to redistricting now

According to the state Constitution, there is only one way to repeal or suspend a law that was passed via voter initiative: by passing another initiative.

A redistricting measure could be placed on the ballot either by gathering the required number of valid signatures — in this case, around 500,000 of registered voters — or by a two-thirds vote of the state Legislature. Since time is of the essence, a vote by the Legislature is the obvious way to go.

Then, there’s a long lag time involved in getting the question to the voters, though the Secretary of State’s Office did not provide a timeline.

“Any plan is premature and we are unable to provide any specifics such as dates for this hypothetical situation,” the press team said in an email.

According the state Department of Finance website, it requires a minimum of 131 days — roughly four and a half months — to get an initiative before the voters. If that timeline applies in this case, it would be early January before a special election could be held. The primary is on June 2, 2026, which doesn’t leave much time for campaigning.

And then there’s the expense to consider: The 2021 recall election cost $200 million, though that ballot was more complicated. Also, conducting a mail-only vote would bring the cost down (though, at a minimum, it’s likely to cost at least $100 million, based on vote-by-mail estimates from other counties).

That’s hard to swallow, especially since the state is in a financial crisis. But when you consider that Californians have been screaming at lawmakers do to something to counter the dictatorial assaults of the Trump administration, this is an opportunity to fight back.

Newsom prepares for a dirty fight

It’s a dirty fight, to be sure, but what’s the alternative?

California has been backed into a corner and has the right to defend itself against authoritarianism. To do nothing and allow Texas and possibly other conservative states like Missouri and Ohio to practically guarantee that Republicans will continue to control Congress subverts the system of checks and balances that the founders envisioned.

It’s all too easy for Texas and other conservative states to redraw their lines since they have no mandated independent redistricting commissions.

While it’s highly irregular to gerrymander in the middle of the 10-year census cycle, Texas Republicans have proven to be all too willing to bend their knees to Trump.

In California, where congressional Democrats outnumber Republicans 43 to 9, Democrats could gain five seats, redistricting consultant Paul Mitchell told the Los Angeles Times.

Not everyone thinks it’s a workable — or noble — idea.

“Dems could be down even more seats if it’s a national battle — never mind betraying the trust of voters,” political consultant Steven Maviglio posted on X.

Mitchell responded: “Is it betraying the trust of the voters to take it back to the voters? As the governor said, this may be an ‘in emergency break glass’ situation.”

The way to solve this is by letting voters decide if the Legislature should redraw the map for the midterm election. But for just that election; this cannot become a return to the smoke-filled, good ol’ boys club of the past.

That way, California can meet the extreme need of the moment and retain its democracy, too.

This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 10:12 AM with the headline "Should California redraw congressional districts to derail Trump? It may have to | Opinion."