California Governor Gavin Newsom is vowing to fight “fire with fire” in the battle over Texas redistricting as Democrats have seized on GOP efforts to level the playing field by taking on the left-wing party’s gerrymandering.
In remarks at a Monday news conference, the trash-talking governor pledged that if Texas is allowed to proceed with redistricting, California will do likewise with the party hellbent on taking back the House in next year’s midterm elections.
.@realDonaldTrump doesn’t care about rigging the system to win.
He doesn’t care about lighting democracy on fire, bending the rules, and playing dirty to get what he wants.
This is an attack on our American rights, and California won’t stand for it. pic.twitter.com/fBANHT4dBu
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) August 4, 2025
“The proposal that we’re advancing with the legislature has a trigger only if they move forward, to dismantling the protocols that are well-established,” he said, according to Fox News. “Would the state of California move forward in kind? Fighting? Yes, fire with fire.”
The governor was referring to a plan by Golden State Democrats to have the overwhelmingly left-wing state approve its own redrawing of maps that will eliminate Republican seats before the 2026 midterms, a scheme that would be triggered if Texas follows through and would re-stack the deck in the Democrats’ favor.
“That process has to have the concurrence, the support of two-thirds of the legislature,” Newsom said. “The maps, we believe, should be transparent. They should be provided in a transparent way to the public, and as a consequence, those maps are being processed and will be brought to light.”
“We will offer them the opportunity to make judgments for themselves, again, only if Texas moves forward,” he said of the proposal. “I’ll reinforce that we believe it should be a national model, independent national redistricting, and it would revert back to its original form, but it’s done in response to the existential realities that we’re now facing. Things have changed, facts have changed, so we must change.”
Newsom’s remarks came during the presser in which he and California Attorney General Rob Bonta touted their legal war against President Donald J. Trump and his administration.
Our tireless, proactive work with @AGRobBonta has helped California defend our state, our values, and our people.
We’ll continue to be the backstop against @realDonaldTrump and his administration’s tyrannical actions.
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) August 4, 2025
“They’ve triggered this response and we’re not going to roll over and we’re going to fight fire with fire, but we’re going to do so not just punching with the weight of the fourth largest economy, the most populous state in our union, the size of 21 state populations combined,” said Newsom, a man who has political ambitions on the national level.
“We also will punch above our weight in terms of the impact of what we’re doing, and I think that should be absorbed by those in the Texas delegation. Whatever they are doing will be neutered here in the state of California, and they will pay that price,” he vowed.
California GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin warned that the Newsom-backed election-rigging scheme flies in the face of the constitutional rights of Californians and that it could set a dangerous precedent.
“While Governor Newsom frames this redistricting as a defensive move, it undermines California’s nationally respected, voter-approved Citizens Redistricting Commission, and if successful, sets a dangerous precedent that voters’ choices can be overruled whenever politicians find it politically convenient,” Rankin told Fox News Digital.
“Our primary concern is safeguarding Californians’ constitutional rights against partisan manipulation disguised as defending democracy; true democracy means empowering voters, not politicians, to decide representation,” he added.
On Monday, over four dozen Texas Democrats fled the Lone Star State to prevent a vote on the redrawing of congressional districts in the special legislative session, a measure backed by Trump.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered the arrest of the fugitives who are being backed by national Democrats, including the governors of New York and Illinois, who have given them refuge.
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