Gavin Newsom urges Trump to abandon Texas redistricting effort in letter [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Mon 11 Aug 2025 20.13 EDT
Last modified on Mon 11 Aug 2025 20.14 EDT


Texas Democrats once again stymied a Republican effort to redraw the state’s congressional maps at the behest of Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom, the California governor, urged the president to stand down and defuse the redistricting arms race that has spread across the country.

Enough Texas Democrats remained outside of the state on Monday to deny the Republican-led state legislature the quorum necessary to proceed with Trump’s desired congressional map. Dozens of Democratic state lawmakers left the state on Sunday, taking refuge in blue states such as Illinois and New York. They have spent the last week working to raise awareness and rally support for their efforts to block the Republican redistricting plan.

The standoff has widened the redistricting wars, with Newsom and other Democratic state leaders threatening to draw retaliatory maps if Texas moves ahead with its redistricting scheme.

In a letter to Trump on Monday, Newsom said the president was “playing with fire” and warned that California was prepared to consider new boundaries to “neutralize” any gains Republicans hope to achieve in Texas. “This attempt to rig congressional maps to hold onto power before a single vote is cast in the 2026 election is an affront to American democracy,” Newsom wrote.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/11/gavin-newsom-trump-texas-redistricting

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