OAN Staff Blake Wolf
9:58 AM – Thursday, August 14, 2025
California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that he plans to move forward with the Golden State’s redistricting efforts, which he claims will effectively “END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY,” despite California voters widely preferring to preserve the state’s independent redistricting commission.
The plan is part of a broader “tit-for-tat” redistricting battle, with Democrats in other states like New York and Maryland also considering similar responses.
As the 2026 midterms approach, a nationwide redistricting effort is underway in numerous states, aiming to gain additional House seats that will likely determine control over the House and have a significant impact on the second half of President Donald Trump’s term.
Newsom vowed to move forward with redistricting efforts in response to the GOP’s redistricting efforts in Texas, which passed on Tuesday, providing Republicans the opportunity to pick up five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“AS MANY KNOW, DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP – AUTHOR OF THE ART OF THE ‘DEAL’ (A BOOK HE SHOULD RETURN TO THE LIBRARY) — JUST MISSED THE BEST DEAL IN HISTORY. HE ALWAYS ‘CHICKENS OUT’ (TARIFFS, CHINA) — BUT EVEN A ‘CHICKEN’ SHOULD KNOW A GOOD ‘DEAL’ WHEN HE SEES ONE,” Newsom’s press office wrote on Wednesday, mocking President Trump’s emphatic social media writing style.
“I, YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR, GAVIN CHRISTOPHER NEWSOM, OFFERED THE BEST, MOST ‘AMAZING DEAL’ IN HISTORY: STOP RIGGING TEXAS MAPS AND CALIFORNIA WON’T MAKE OURS MORE ‘BEAUTIFUL.’ SADLY — BUT NO SURPRISE — DONALD WAS TOO WEAK (LITTLE HANDS) TO EVEN WRITE ME BACK. NO DEAL! AND NO DEAL = PERFECT, BEAUTIFUL MAPS THAT WILL ‘END’ HIS PRESIDENCY. SOON HE WILL NOT BE ‘47.’ PATRIOTS WILL TAKE BACK CONGRESS,” Newsom continued.
Newsom’s press office provided an update on Thursday, announcing that he will “HOST THE GREATEST PRESS CONFERENCE OF ALL TIME.”
“AFTER THAT — ‘THE MAPS’ WILL SOON BE RELEASED. VERY MUCH ANTICIPATED. HISTORY MADE. THE GOP’S RIGGED GAME IS OVER!!!! THE PEOPLE RETAKE CONGRESS,” he added.
Newsom’s team has reportedly convened with state lawmakers to draft the new map — arguing that it is possible to obtain an additional 5 Democrat seats to counter the GOP effort in Texas.
“I’m confident that if we need to move forward, we will do that successfully. There’s tremendous unity on the Democratic side,” stated Democrat rep Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).
Under the leadership of former California GOP Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, California had created an independent redistricting commission responsible for drawing districts without partisan politics involved. Newsom’s effort to bypass the independent commission would likely require a new amendment to be passed by a two-thirds vote in the state Assembly and Senate, which would then require approval from California voters in an election.
Additionally, despite Newsom’s push for redistricting, a new poll conducted by the Politico-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab found that just 36% of California voters support turning over the authority to redistrict the state to California lawmakers, while 64% expressed support for the authority to remain with the independent commission.
Due to the widespread support for the independent commission, Newsom included a caveat, saying that the control over redistricting would return to the independent commission following the 2026, 2028, and 2030 election cycles.
Meanwhile, political analysts have noted that Newsom may have to heavily campaign on the issue in order to ensure voters support the measure, due to the popularity of the independent commission.
The Politico-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll was conducted between July 28th–August 12th, and recorded responses from 1,445 registered California voters.
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