‘Cold Civil War’: 5 Things To Know About CA’s Redistricting Special Election

Amid threats of political arrests and dire warnings of a disappearing American democracy, California jumped into the fray this week with a partisan redistricting plan to sway the outcome of the U.S. House of Representatives midterm elections.

The largest state in the nation, California takes on Texas, which is engaged in a bare-knuckle political brawl to rewrite the Lone Star State’s Congressional map at the behest of President Donald Trump. The president called on Texas to get him five more Republican seats to help the GOP retain control of the House after the 2026 midterm elections. As the president enlists other states to pursue naked political gerrymandering on his behalf, California has emerged as the Democratic Party’s rebuttal, vowing to produce five more Democratic seats to counter the Texas effort.

On Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation for a November Special Election seeking voter approval for a mid-decade redistricting map. The map is expected to doom reelection chances for much of the state’s GOP Congressional delegation. It's he latest step in a tit-for-tat gerrymandering battle.

RELATED: Immigration Agents Swarm Doorstep Of Newsom Event Announcing CA Redistricting Battle

How It Would Work?

California will hold a November special election to seek approval of redrawn districts intended to give Democrats five more U.S. House seats.

California lawmakers voted mostly along party lines Thursday to approve legislation calling for the special election.

Then it will be up to voters Nov. 4 to approve or reject the maps.

The process is a major departure from the norm. Typically, Congressional districts are redrawn every 10 years based on the results of the U.S. Census. California has been a national model for its redistricting maps drawn by independent commissions to reduce the likelihood of political gerrymandering that plague many states.

The proposed California map would take effect only if a Republican state moves forward with the unusual mid-decade redistricting, and it would remain through the 2030 elections. After that, Democrats say they would return mapmaking power to the independent commission approved by voters more than a decade ago.

Currently, California Democrats hold 43 of the state’s 52 House seats. Republicans stand to lose more than half their seats if Democrats succeed.

“This is not something six weeks ago that I ever imagined that I’d be doing,” Newsom said at a press conference, pledging a campaign for the measure that would reach out to Democrats, Republicans and independent voters. “This is a reaction to an assault on our democracy in Texas.”

Republicans, who have filed a lawsuit and called for a federal investigation into the plan, promised to fight the measure at the ballot box as well.

California Assemblyman James Gallagher, the Republican minority leader, said Trump was “wrong” to push for new Republican seats elsewhere, contending the president was just responding to Democratic gerrymandering in other states. But he warned that Newsom’s approach, which the governor has dubbed “fight fire with fire,” was dangerous.

“You move forward fighting fire with fire and what happens?” Gallagher asked. “You burn it all down.”

Former President Barack Obama, who’s also backed a nationwide nonpartisan approach, backed Newsom’s bid to redraw the California map, saying it was a necessary step to stave off the GOP’s Texas move.

“I think that approach is a smart, measured approach,” Obama said Tuesday during a fundraiser for the Democratic Party’s main redistricting arm, noting that California voters will still have the final say on the map.

“We’ll be the first state in U.S. history, in the most democratic way, to submit to the people of our state the ability to determine their own maps,” Newsom said before signing the legislation.

Christian Grose, Professor of Political Science and International Relations and Public Policy
at USC, said the decision to hold an election on the redistricting map is a notable contrast to Texas approach. It comes with risks and benefits, he said.

"I think that going on the ballot is really interesting and also a little qualitatively different than what's happening in Texas, where the legislators are directly just doing it. Here they're actually putting it to the voters, which is a pretty classic California way of doing things," said Grose. "It's a higher risk strategy than Texas. I think it's more palatable to take it to the voters, in contrast to Texas, where it is just the legislature making the change."

Putting the redistricting maps to voters makes it more likely to survive legal challenges, but now California Democrats have to sell voters on the plan, said Grose. Making the redrawn maps temporary and triggered only if other states such as Texas pursue mid-decade redistricting will likely appeal to voters, he added.

"The map would not go into effect if Texas or other states don't act. So I think that was pretty clever to make it like a trigger instead of literally just trying to pass a map," Grose said. "I also think it makes it more likely to pass that way."

Which CA Congressional Districts Could Be Affected?

The governor and his Democratic allies released their proposed map Aug. 15. According to Politico, Democrats will try to gerrymander seats away from Republicans or more firmly in favor of Democrats in San Diego, Riverside, Orange, and Los Angeles counties along with the Central Valley and one Northern California district. Specifically, Politico reported:

“CD-1, the rural northeastern corner of the state represented by Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, transforms from safe Republican to safe Democratic

CD-3, a sprawling district along California’s eastern border represented by GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley, goes from safe Republican to safe Democratic

CD-9, Democratic Rep. Josh Harder’s northern Central Valley district, moves from lean Democratic to safe Democratic

CD-13, a Central Valley seat narrowly won last year by Democratic Rep. Adam Gray, changes from lean Republican to safe Democratic

CD-27, a northern Los Angeles County seat held by Democratic Rep. George Whitesides, moves from lean Democratic to safe Democratic

CD-41, a battleground seat held by GOP Rep. Ken Calvert, transforms from safe Republican to safe Democratic

CD-45, which Democratic Rep. Derek Tran won last year in the most expensive race in the country, goes from lean Democratic to safe Democratic

CD-47, an Orange County district represented by Democratic Rep. Dave Min, moves from lean Democratic to safe Democratic

CD-48, which spans Riverside and San Diego counties and is held by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, changes from safe Republican to lean Democratic.”

The proposed remapping would create a jigsaw of oddly shaped districts to maximize Democratic clout.

LaMalfa, a Trump supporter, currently sits in a district that has a nearly 18-point GOP registration edge. If voters approve the map, he'll see that edge erased. Under the proposal, Democrats would end up with a 10-point registration advantage there after drastic reshaping to include parts of heavily Democratic Sonoma County near the Pacific Coast.

In a post on the social platform X, LaMalfa called the proposal “absolutely ridiculous.”

In Calvert's 41st District in the Inland Empitre, Democratic and Republican registration is currently split about evenly.

But in the redrawn district, Democratic registration would jump to 46% with GOP registration falling to 26%.

What Started This?

Trump started this electoral cold war by urging allies in Texas to pursue an unusual mid-decade redistricting map that reshapes district lines to weaken Democratic voting strength so his party could retain control of Congress. Texas legislators are trying to do his bidding.

However, the Texas plan was stalled when the state’s minority Democrats fled to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts on Aug. 3 to stop the Legislature from passing any bills. The move temporarily denied their Republican colleagues the required attendance to conduct business and vote on Trump's redistricting agenda.

After Democrats thwarted Texas Republicans' redistricting plan with their absence during a special session, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott quickly called lawmakers back to begin a new session.

“We are in basically a cold Civil War that we’re starting by capitulating to a person in the White House,” said Rep. Eddie Morales, one of the few Democrats who has remained in Austin during the walkout.

However, following California's move, the Texas Democrats returned, and the Texas Senate gave final approval to a new, Republican-leaning congressional voting map early Saturday.

Which States Are Next?

The nation’s two most populous states have been at the forefront of a partisan battle that has reached into multiple courtrooms and statehouses controlled by both parties. With the balance of Capitol Hill and Trump’s agenda at stake for the latter half of his second presidency, more states are expected to join the battle.

Trump has urged other Republican-run states to redraw maps, even dispatching Vice President JD Vance to Indiana to press officials there. In Missouri, a document obtained by The Associated Press shows the state Senate received a $46,000 invoice to activate six redistricting software licenses and provide training for up to 10 staff members.

In addition to Texas and Missouri, Republican redistricting efforts are being considered or underway in Ohio, Florida, Kansas, and Indiana.

Democrats in New York, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, and Wisconsin have pursued or addressed the possibility of various efforts to redraw their maps before the midterms.

Newsom encouraged other Democratic-led states to get involved as well.

“We need to stand up — not just California. Other blue states need to stand up,” Newsom said.

According to USC's Grose, California's rapid response to the Texas gerrymander may already have had an impact.

"I do think California's quick retaliatory action might give some of the other Republican states pause," he said.

Legislators considering redistricting for Trump can now expect tit-for-tat, which could mean minimal results for a process that would have to push some of their own members into more competitive districts, he said.

What Is At Stake?

Nationally, control of the House of Representatives is at stake, and with it, the Trump agenda.
During his first term, Trump’s party lost control of the House in the midterms and spent the next two years facing Congressional investigations. The House impeached him twice.

With continued Republican control of the legislative and executive branches of government, Trump will be able to continue to pursue his agenda.

According to the White House, that includes:

• continued efforts to conduct mass deportations;
• suspending refugee resettlement;
• enlisting the military for border security and law enforcement functions;
• reversing Biden’s green “policies of climate extremism, streamlining permitting, and reviewing for rescission all regulations that impose undue burdens on energy production and use, including mining and processing of non-fuel minerals;"
• the ongoing tariff war with America’s trading partners;
• establishing "male and female as biological reality and protect women from radical gender ideology;"
• and naming American landmarks "to appropriately honor our Nation’s history.”

There is also much at stake for California, which is fighting the Trump administration on deportation raids, the use of the military for peacekeeping functions, wildfire and disaster funding, greenhouse emissions and regulations, and healthcare and education funding.

In Los Angeles, Newsom and others depicted the looming battle as a conflict with all things Trump, tying it explicitly to the fate of American democracy.

“Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back,” said Newsom.

However, there is a risk of backlash for California Democrats. Overall, partisan gerrymandering remains deeply unpopular with voters. While Democrats outnumbered Republicans 2 to 1 in the Golden State as of 2024, there are still millions of registered Republicans and Trump supporters in California.

Some people have already said they would sue to block Newsom's redistricting effort. Republican former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a longtime opponent of partisan redistricting, signaled that he won’t side with California Democrats even after talking to Newsom. He posted a photo of himself at the gym wearing a T-shirt that said. "Terminate gerrymandering” with a reference to an obscenity.

“I'm getting ready for the gerrymandering battle,” Schwarzenegger wrote on the social media post.

The Associated Press' Nadia Lathan, Bill Barrow, Michael R. Blood And Trân Nguyễn contributed to this report.