SACRAMENTO, Calif. — When Arnold Schwarzenegger, then the governor of California, urged voters to “terminate gerrymandering” 15 years ago, most welcomed the chance to take some power away from politicians.

In 2010, more than 60% of voters approved a measure that put the job of drawing California’s congressional map in the hands of an independent commission instead of with partisan lawmakers.

Now one of Schwarzenegger’s successors, Gov. Gavin Newsom, is threatening to blow up California’s system for a partisan purpose.

As Texas considers an extraordinary mid-decade redrawing of its maps to help Republicans win more seats in Congress and to satisfy President Donald Trump, Newsom has said California should counter with a similar move to help Democrats.

Never mind that legal scholars have described his proposals as far-fetched. The longest of long shots. A path that would require political gymnastics and subvert California’s high-minded approach.

Newsom, in suggesting that California play hardball politics, seems determined to show that he is a Democratic warrior trying to beat Republicans at their own game.

“We can act holier than thou,” Newsom said during a news conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday. “We can sit on the sidelines, talk about the way the world should be. Or, we can recognize the existential nature that is this moment.”

A likely presidential contender in 2028, Newsom was fresh off a trip to South Carolina last week when he began to float the idea of changing California’s redistricting system as a response to Texas’ maneuvering. He first mentioned it in an interview over beers with a journalist from a progressive news site in Tennessee. He then repeated the idea on social media and in a conversation with the hosts of “Pod Save America,” one of the most popular podcasts among liberal voters.

Not the First Time Newsom Goes After Texas

It’s not the first time Newsom has used his position to go tit-for-tat with Texas. Three years ago, he signed a California law allowing the public to sue to enforce the state’s gun laws, which was considered a direct response to a Texas law allowing people to sue abortion providers.

The question of how states draw political maps may seem esoteric, but it is central to the fight over control of the House in 2027, and with it, the ability to either facilitate or block Trump’s agenda for the last two years of his term.

Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, 220 to 212. Democrats are hoping to win control next year to thwart some of the president’s power.

Trump wants to prevent that from happening. He has asked Texas to redraw its congressional districts to create five more seats that Republicans would be likely to win in the 2026 elections. The proposal is now one of several that Texas lawmakers could consider when they convene a special legislative session Monday, with support from Gov. Greg Abbott.

Texas has 38 seats in the House, of which 25 are held by Republicans. Unlike California, Texas does not use an independent commission for drawing political maps; the state leaves that task to the Legislature, which has a Republican majority.

California, the nation’s most populous state, has 52 House seats, of which 43 are held by Democrats. If California Democrats were successful in changing the law to allow partisan map-drawing, their party could easily gain two or three seats, and potentially as many as five or six, according to Paul Mitchell, a Democratic strategist and redistricting expert.

But that’s a big if.

Independent Commission Draws California’s Political Maps

California’s Constitution says that political maps must be drawn by the independent commission once per decade following the decennial census. Newsom has publicly discussed two possibilities to get around that.

One would be for the state Legislature to pass a law that would allow lawmakers to draw congressional maps mid-decade. Newsom called this “a novel legal question.” Experts said that a California court would likely reject the legislation.

“Trying to just ignore the law and engage in political redistricting would likely get blocked by California state courts as violating the state constitution,” Richard Hasen, a political science professor at the UCLA School of Law, said by email.

Another option would be for California lawmakers to put a question on the ballot asking voters to change the state constitution and allow the Legislature to draw new maps before the 2026 election. Newsom called this method the “clean way of doing it” and said that he thought it would win support from voters.

But that plan would face political and practical hurdles, and very likely legal challenges. Two-thirds of the Legislature would have to agree to put such a measure on the ballot, a high bar even in a body where Democrats have a supermajority.

Then, Democrats would have to convince voters to participate in a special election to give more power to the politicians they took it from 15 years ago.

If Newsom and Democrats managed to clear those hurdles, lawmakers would have to draft new maps that would likely be challenged in court. And all of this would have to be completed before a state deadline in March for candidates to declare that they will run in the June primary.

“It is very complicated and very difficult,” said Tony Quinn, a former Republican strategist and redistricting expert. “They do not have enough time.”

Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said that such changes in California seem unlikely because voters have shown a disdain for partisan gamesmanship through the redistricting process. But Newsom has suggested that California voters would see partisan redistricting as a response to Texas Republicans and necessary to preserve democracy.

“It’s not unthinkable that Texas could so massively and egregiously overshoot,” Levitt said, “that it inspires California voters to take matters into their own hands.”

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Laurel Rosenhall
c. 2025 The New York Times Company