SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Democratic leaders in the California legislature say they support Governor Gavin Newsom and his plan to enter the redistricting fight that President Trump has set off across the country. First, Texas Republicans devised a plan to redraw their congressional map to try to get five more Republican seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. And now Governor Newsom wants to counter by mapping out five more Democratic seats in California. Texas Democrats who fled their home state were in Sacramento yesterday with California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas.
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ROBERT RIVAS: We will not allow Trump's Republican Party to rig this system and take permanent control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
SIMON: Guy Marzorati, California politics and government correspondent at KQED in San Francisco, joins us. Guy, thanks for being with us.
GUY MARZORATI, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: And what did California Democrats announce yesterday?
MARZORATI: Well, we heard from Democratic leaders in both the state Senate and the state Assembly that they are behind Newsom's redistricting plan, and they're going to take it to the ballot in a special election in November. That's necessary here in California because the voters here have created this nonpartisan commission to draw political lines, so it would have to go back to the voters. It would have to be voters to hand the power back to the legislature.
So here's kind of the outlines of the plan we heard yesterday from Democratic leaders. They're going to release a proposed map with new congressional lines next week, and then it's a really tight sprint. The legislature returns to session on August 18. They're going to have just a few days to place this on the ballot, as August 22 is the deadline. And then there would likely be a separate vote on the actual map, and then also setting up a trigger where this California plan only goes into effect if Texas or other Republican states follow through with their gerrymanders.
SIMON: Democratic leaders and legislature support the governor. What about rank-and-file Democrats? Can you tell?
MARZORATI: Yeah. So I think it looks like they're getting in line. Just a couple weeks ago, I was hearing a lot of skepticism from some Democrats in the legislature. You know, they knew this independent commission was popular. I think they liked a lot of its work. And I think they're also worried about county workers and kind of having them scramble together this election for November 4, because this is a tighter timeline than we're used to seeing for a statewide election. But I think ultimately, kind of national concerns won the day. Los Angeles assembly member Isaac Bryan spoke yesterday. And he said, look, California can't stand by if Republican states are pursuing these gerrymandered districts.
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ISAAC BRYAN: This is not a turn-the-other-cheek moment while they continue to send blow after blow to the foundations of democracy. Where I'm from in Los Angeles, when they go low, we squabble up.
MARZORATI: And this has kind of been Newsom's theory here all along - right? - that Democratic voters want to see more fight from their elected leaders, and that control of Congress at this moment is more important than, you know, quote-unquote good government practices. That's kind of been Newsom's argument, and that argument appears to have won over state lawmakers.
SIMON: What's the reaction of California Republicans?
MARZORATI: They're not supportive of moving forward towards this plan that's going to favor Democrats, but they don't have the power to stop it here in California. Democrats have a supermajority in the state Senate and the state Assembly. In Washington, in Congress, we did see California Republican Congress member Kevin Kiley introduce legislation, and that would have stopped all mid-decade redistricting nationwide.
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KEVIN KILEY: We should have voters choosing our representatives. We shouldn't have representatives choosing their voters.
MARZORATI: And we also heard Kiley call out House Speaker Mike Johnson, kind of ask him to step in, stop this escalation of gerrymandering that we're seeing across the country. Unclear where those efforts will go. And I think it's also worth saying, Scott, Kiley's one of the Republicans in California who I think is seen as particularly vulnerable in a potential map redraw, so he has a lot to lose here.
SIMON: Guy, do you have any sense of how California voters feel about setting aside an independent commission - something that the state used to be proud of?
MARZORATI: Yeah, hard to say. I mean, independent redistricting has been popular in California. And I think the idea of, you know, politicians going to the voters, asking for them for this gerrymander - that might turn a segment of the electorate off. There's also, you know, the work of this independent commission has succeeded in a lot of ways. There's communities that were previously split into multiple districts that have now been placed together in these new maps. You have a lot more competitive seats here, races in California, than states like Texas and Florida, if you just look at the House results over the last two years. But this is happening in this larger picture of a partisan war. And I think the extent to which Newsom can make this about red versus blue, Democrats versus Republicans - I think you can see a clear path for his campaign to succeed here.
SIMON: Guy Marzorati from KQED in San Francisco. Thanks so much for being on the job for us.
MARZORATI: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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