If you think California politics couldn’t get more cynical, think again. What Gov. Gavin Newsom did demonstrates that “democracy” is only a slogan for Democrats when it benefits them and expendable once it doesn’t. This isn’t about protecting voters, balancing the system, or reacting to Republicans in Texas. It’s about raw, naked power, and Newsom has once again proven that he’s willing to rewrite the rules of the game to keep it in his hands.
On Thursday, Newsom signed the so-called "Election Rigging Response Act," which he frames as a response to Republican redistricting efforts in Texas. But in reality, this wasn’t some reactionary move. In fact, California actually jumped the gun, moving forward with a process to implement blatantly partisan maps designed to wipe out half of the state's Republican-held congressional seats well before any move from Texas even came close to reality.
Newsom and his Democrat cohorts outright dismissed the state’s supposedly independent redistricting commission, which voters established back in 2008 to keep politicians out of mapmaking. That commission was supposed to keep the process fair, though many argue that it didn’t. Nevertheless, the commission stood in the way of Newsom’s mid-cycle redistricting plan, and the legislation he signed took them out of the equation, effectively proving that fairness has never been and never will be what motivates Newsom.
For weeks, Newsom claimed he would only consider gerrymandering if Texas moved first. But Texas hasn’t finalized anything; its latest census numbers are still under Justice Department review. Even if Texas acts mid-cycle, there’s a legitimate argument that it’s correcting errors from the 2020 census. Newsom’s move in California, by contrast, was purely a power grab.
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California acted quickly, not in response to Texas, but to exploit the political controversy Texas faced. Democrats used the moment to cement a permanent edge in Congress, engineering the map to their advantage under the guise of “defending democracy.”
This entire scheme reads like a means for Newsom to increase his national profile as he prepares to run for president in 2028. And, at the moment, it’s been working. Recent polling has put him ahead of other potential 2028 Democratic primary candidates.
The good news is that Californians will still get a chance to weigh in with a special election in November to approve or reject the new map, and recent polling found that a significant majority of California voters prefer maintaining the state's independent redistricting commission rather than returning map-drawing power to partisan lawmakers. So there’s a chance that this plan could still fail.
Newsom’s gerrymandering scheme has nothing to do with Texas; that was a ruse from the get-go. Newsom has been looking for every possible way to expand his national profile, and he seized on this opportunity. Even if it ultimately fails, he gets to portray himself as a Democrat hero who stood up to Trump and Republicans.
