Summary
- Trump
plans to sue California over a new redistricting plan. - California
map seen as response to Texas GOP map. - The
DOJ expected to file a lawsuit soon, Trump confident. - California’s
plan aims to add five Democratic seats.
The president also stated that the Department of Justice
will bring the lawsuit.
“Well think I’m going to be filing a lawsuit pretty soon,”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
“And I think we’re going to
be very successful in it.”
Following the news, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a
longtime political and legal opponent of the president, posted on X, saying,
“BRING IT.”
A White House representative referred queries to the
Department of Justice and declined to comment on the specifics of the case.
It’s unclear what grounds the Trump administration intends
to raise in opposition to the California map plan.
The California bill, which may add up to five Democratic
seats to Congress, asks voters to accept a new set of congressional boundaries
in a special election in November.
The bill, according to Newsom, is a means of thwarting an
attempt to seize up to five additional GOP congressional seats in Texas, which
was also approved last week.
“We’re neutralizing what occurred and we’re giving the
American people a fair chance,”
Newsom said on Thursday.
“Because when all
things are equal and we’re all playing by the same set of rules, there’s no
question the Republican party will be the minority party in the House of
Representatives.”
The Texas plan, which does not require voter approval, came
after Trump encouraged Republicans in the Lone Star state this summer to find
him more seats, arguing he was “entitled” to them after his success in the 2024
election.
“Texas will be the biggest one,”
Trump said at the time.
“And that’ll be five.”
Texas’s effort has set off a national redistricting war,
bucking the usual trend of drawing new maps once per decade after the Census.
In an attempt to seize control of the House of
Representatives, where Republicans now enjoy a seven-seat majority and four
seats are up for grabs, at least six states are threatening to redraw their
boundaries.
Given that it controls more state legislatures, Republicans
may eventually gain more seats than Democrats.
How might California’s ballot referendum undo the GOP gains
from Texas’s map?
Texas Republicans’ map, pushed by former President Trump’s
allies, intends to add five new congressional districts favorable to the GOP,
helping them expand their narrow House majority for the 2026 midterms.
California Democrats, led by Governor Gavin Newsom, have
crafted a competing map to increase their own state’s Democratic seats by
potentially five, offsetting the additional Republican seats gained from Texas.
The referendum would override California’s voter-approved
independent redistricting commission process and enact a partisan map drawn by
Democratic lawmakers, thereby creating new districts that favor Democratic
candidates.
