California Democratic lawmakers put their weight behind Newsom's redistricting effort

Kate Wolffe, The Sacramento Bee on Aug 18, 2025

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Democrats in California’s Legislature presented a united front in support of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s retaliatory redistricting effort on Monday.

More than 30 lawmakers crowded onto a stage together at the Capitol with Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, and Peter Aguilar, D-Redlands, to set the stage for their four-day sprint to approve new congressional maps and a special November election.

“We have had enough of this nonsense, and we’re not going to allow these abuses of power to go on unchallenged any longer,” said Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister.

Democrats unveiled two bills and one constitutional amendment, all of which formally kickstart Newsom’s once-hypothetical redistricting effort. The Legislature is aiming to vote on the measures Thursday in time for the Secretary of State to organize a Nov. 4 special election.

Senate Bill 280, from state Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, would call for the special election. Assembly Bill 604, from Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, and state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, would pass the maps. Assembly Constitutional Amendment 8 would suspend the redistricting committee until 2030.

The proposed maps, which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released Friday, would change five districts currently represented by Republicans into Democratic districts, and make several others less competitive. The change is in response to Texas’ own redistricting plan, in response to urging from the Trump administration, to net Republicans five more seats in Congress in the 2026 election. The California maps would only go into effect if Texas goes forward with the plan.

Despite the united front, Democrats were clear they had mixed feelings about the move, and maintained that it’s a reaction to the Trump administration’s own aggressive approach to gerrymandering in Texas.

“We didn’t want this fight, we didn’t pick this fight. It was put upon us,” said state Sen. Jon Laird, D-Santa Cruz. “But we are not running away from it.”

“What we’re doing is not what we want to be doing,” said Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Jefferson Park. Many Democrats, including Bryan, had previously championed independent redistricting, a process voters approved in 2008.

Bryan expressed admiration for Texas Democratic lawmakers, who’d fled their state in order to prevent their colleagues from being able to pass the new maps. He said they were counting on them to counteract in response to Texas.

“Because they have that confidence in us, that is part of why they are returning back to their job.”

Legislators and vice president of bipartisan voting data firm Political Data Inc., Paul Mitchell, configured the maps while on summer recess.

Republicans call it “Gavin-mandering”

Republicans in the California Legislature held a press conference immediately after the Democrats, calling on their counterparts to stop the redistricting effort.

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, called the effort “Gavin-mandering.”

The maps, he said “are completely unfair. They split up communities, they destroy communities. They take away the voices of California.”

The group said it would support a nationwide effort to implement independent redistricting, and encouraged Democrats to do the same.

Their efforts to pass a resolution calling for that, and to stop the legislation in its tracks, failed on the floor Monday.

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