Gavin Newsom’s Misguided Redistricting Initiative
13th August 2025
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is upset with Texas.
There’s a reason he should be upset. California companies are pulling up in droves and moving to the Lone Star State and elsewhere.
But that isn’t what’s bothering him. Newsom cares about politics and power, not markets and business.
He’s upset that the Texas state legislature is moving to redistricting that could add up to five Republican seats in 2026. So, Newsom wants to redistrict, which could add another five Democrat seats in California.
California’s congressional districts are already gerrymandered to death to favor Democrats — 17% of the State’s 52 congressional seats are held by Republicans in a state in which Donald Trump garnered 38% of the popular vote in 2024.
In ballot initiatives in 2008 and 2010, Californians amended the state constitution to establish an independent redistricting commission, with five representatives from each party and four unaffiliated, to take rote politics out of the process.
But removing rote politics for Gavin Newsom is like asking the LA Dodgers to show up for a game without bats, balls and gloves.