California legislature passes congressional map bills, escalating redistricting faceoff with Texas

California’s state legislature on Thursday passed the bills that comprise the state’s plan to put new congressional bills on the ballot in a November special election, in retaliation for a congressional redistricting plan moving forward in Texas.

Voters will now be set to vote on new maps that could allow Democrats to flip five Republican-held seats, in a special election in November that is set to be costly and combative.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had faced a lawsuit from state GOP lawmakers over the plan, hailed the bills’ passage in remarks Thursday before he signed the bills.

“I’m eager to sign a bill that no other governor in U.S. history has ever signed — a bill that will put the maps in front of the voters,” Newsom said, adding that California would be the first U.S. state to “submit to the people in our state the ability to determine their own maps. That simply has not been done.”

In most states — as in Texas — congressional district maps are redrawn and approved by state legislatures.

In his remarks, Newsom blasted President Donald Trump, who had urged Texas and other GOP-led states to redraw their congressional maps.

“He can’t win by playing by the traditional set of rules. He plays by no rules,” Newsom said of Trump, adding later, “We’re standing up to that. He fired the first shot in Texas. We wouldn’t be here had Texas not done what they just did.”

National Democrats applauded California’s move, including Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who wrote in a statement “Every Californian should vote for Democrats’ measure to level the playing field. This isn’t just about California. The basic premise of Americans — instead of Donald Trump — choosing their elected officials is at stake.”

Newsom, who formally unveiled his push to have California put new congressional maps on the ballot last week, raised $6.2 million in the last 7 days from 200,000 donors, a spokesperson for his campaign confirmed to ABC News.

The fundraising number was first reported by the New York Times.

The bills passing came the day after Texas Republicans had a success in their efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps – but California Democrats were set to make their move, in a redistricting battle that has become a proxy war between Trump and Newsom.

After a long day of debate on Wednesday, the Texas House passed a bill with new congressional maps that could flip five congressional districts red by making them more favorable for Republicans.

Democrats, who had fled the state to deny a quorum in the legislature for weeks, now say they are ready to take on the maps in court.

“Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. Texas never lets us down,” Trump, who pushed Texas to redraw maps, wrote on his social media platform late Wednesday.

The Texas state Senate’s committee on redistricting voted on Thursday morning to advance the congressional maps bill out of committee, a move that sets up the bill to be considered by the full Senate. The bill is likely on a glide path to the desk of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

“While Democrats shirked their duty, in futility, and ran away to other states, Republicans stayed the course, stayed at work and stayed true to Texas. I will sign this bill once it passes the Senate and gets to my desk,” Abbott wrote on Wednesday.

In California, both bodies of the state legislature met on Thursday and passed through the three bills that make up the redistricting legislation.

Democratic Assemblymember Mark Berman, speaking in support of one of the bills, continued to push potential redistricting as a strike against Trump and against the mid-decade redistricting likely going forward in Texas.

“Let me be crystal clear, we don’t want this fight, and we didn’t choose this fight, but with our democracy on the line, we cannot and will not run away from this fight,” he said.

Newsom, who said the new maps in California would only take effect if other states redraw lines, wrote on X late Wednesday, “Congratulations to @GregAbbott_TX — you will now go down in history as one of Donald Trump’s most loyal lapdogs. Shredding our nation’s founding principles. What a legacy.”

And in another post, he simply wrote, “It’s on, Texas.”

Former President Barack Obama weighed in on the situation Tuesday evening, backing Newsom.

“Given that Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House that is effectively saying: gerrymander for partisan purposes so we can maintain the House despite our unpopular policies, redistrict right in the middle of a decade between censuses – which is not how the system was designed; I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this,” Obama said at a fundraiser in Martha’s Vinyard.

“Because what he has said is, I would prefer not to do it. If we were to redraw our maps, we could obviously gain more Democratic seats. That is not my preference, but we cannot unilaterally allow one of the two major parties to rig the game. And California is one of the states that has the capacity to offset a large state like Texas,” he added.

Trump, on his own platform, criticized Newsom early Thursday, claiming the governor was “way down in the polls.”

“He is viewed as the man who is destroying the once Great State of California,” the president posted.

Republican legislators in California have said the endeavor to get new maps on the ballot is overly costly and subverts the will of the voters in California, who they say support independent redistricting.

California Assembly Republican Leader said Thursday that pushes by Trump, Abbott, and Newsom to redraw maps were all wrong.

“Gavin can move forward. He’s a governor. He has the power. Greg Abbott has the power in Texas. You move forward fighting fire with fire, what happens? You burn it all down,” he said.