California Republicans sue to stop Newsom, Democrats from pushing redistricting plan

"Today I joined my colleagues in filing a lawsuit challenging the rushed redistricting process. California's Constitution requires bills to be in print for 30 days, but that safeguard was ignored. By bypassing this provision, Sacramento has effectively shut voters out of engaging in their own legislative process," Republican state assembly member Tri Ta wrote in a social media post.

The move by the GOP lawmakers is the latest development in the high-stakes battle between Republicans and Democrats in California and in Texas over congressional redistricting ahead of next year's midterm elections.

As they return to work, they're expected to pass a GOP-crafted redistricting map that would create up to five Republican-leaning congressional districts at the expense of currently Democrat-controlled seats in the red state.

The Republican push in Texas, which comes at Trump's urging, is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to pad their razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Trump and his political team are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats stormed back to grab the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.

But Republicans in the Texas House were prevented from holding votes on the new map for two weeks, as dozens of Democratic state representatives fled the state to deny the GOP a quorum in the Texas House. 

Democratic lawmakers in Texas pledge to take their fight to court after the maps are passed by the legislature and signed into law by Abbott, which is expected in the coming days.

While the Republican push in Texas to upend the current congressional maps doesn't face constitutional constraints, the path for Newsom and Democrats in California is much more complicated.

The governor is moving to hold a special election this year, to obtain voter approval to undo the constitutional amendments that created the non-partisan redistricting commission. 

A two-thirds majority vote in the Democrat-dominated California legislature would be needed to hold the referendum, and Democrats in Sacramento on Monday unveiled a bill to move forward with the referendum.

But the emergency petition filed on Tuesday by the state Republican lawmakers argues that the California Constitution prevents the legislature from acting on redistricting bills until next month, because a 30-day review period is needed for new legislation. 

The lawsuit was filed as the California Assembly Elections Committee held a hearing Tuesday on the push for the referendum. GOP lawmakers on the committee and Republicans who submitted comments to the panel heavily criticized the Democrats' redistricting effort.

The California Republican Party on Tuesday called the move by the Democrats an "unconstitutional redistricting power grab" and argued that "Republicans, Democrats, and Independents know what Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are doing is wrong."

But Newsom this week argued that "California and Californians have been uniquely targeted by the Trump Administration, and we are not going to sit idle while they command Texas and other states to rig the next election to keep power - pursuing more extreme and unpopular policies."

And last week, at an event unveiling the Democrats' redistricting push in California, Newsom charged, "Here we are in open and plain sight before one vote is cast in the 2026 midterm election and here [Trump] is once again trying to rig the system.

Newsom is considered a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, and the California GOP claimed that "Newsom is kicking off his shadow presidential campaign by trying to rig and steal California's independent, bipartisan citizen redistricting process."

Last week's event by Newsom also served as a fundraising kickoff to raise massive amounts of campaign cash needed to sell the redistricting push statewide in California. 

The non-partisan redistricting commission, created over 15 years ago, remains popular with most Californians, according to public opinion polling.

That's why Newsom and California Democratic lawmakers are promising not to scrap the commission entirely, but rather replace it temporarily by the legislature for the next three election cycles.

The proposed map was submitted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

McCarthy, who is helping to lead the GOP fundraising effort to counter Newsom and California Democrats leading up to the likely referendum this autumn, said that "November 4th will be the election that people could actually have a say," as he pointed to polls showing strong support for the current non-partisan redistricting commission.

The longtime Hollywood action star says he's mobilizing to oppose the push by Newsom to temporarily scrap the state's nonpartisan redistricting commission.

"I'm getting ready for the gerrymandering battle," Schwarzenegger wrote in a social media post Friday, which included a photo of the former professional bodybuilding champion lifting weights.

Schwarzenegger, during his tenure as governor, had a starring role in the passage of constitutional amendments in California in 2008 and 2010 that took the power to draw state legislative and congressional districts away from politicians and placed them in the hands of an independent commission.