LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Gov. Gavin Newsom joined statewide Democratic leaders in downtown Los Angeles Thursday to announce a Nov. 4 ballot measure that would redraw California’s congressional districts to add more Democrat seats in the U.S. House — countering a similar move in Texas aimed at bolstering the GOP’s hold on Congress.
The highly anticipated announcement, which was hyped by the governor himself with a series of social media posts this week taunting President Donald Trump, became more of a spectacle when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a raid outside the Little Tokyo venue where Newsom was speaking.
“You think it’s coincidental?” Newsom asked the partisan crowd at his news conference. “Donald Trump and his minions … decided coincidentally or not that this was a location to advance ICE arrests.”
The raid didn’t stop Newsom and other Democrats gathered for the event from lashing out at the Trump administration and vowing to follow through with the redistricting process to offset Republican efforts underway in Texas and possibly other GOP strongholds.
Newsom has repeatedly criticized efforts in Texas to redraw that state’s congressional districts ahead of next year’s mid-term elections, with the new maps potentially adding between three and five Republican seats in Congress, bolstering the GOP’s slim majority in the House of Representatives.
That redistricting effort has been on hold due to Texas state Democrats leaving the state, blocking the legislature’s ability to achieve a quorum and vote on the issue.
But Newsom said Thursday California won’t stand by and watch GOP leaders try to rig the 2026 mid-term elections.
“Today is liberation day in the state of California,” Newsom said. ” … Donald Trump, you have poked the bear and we will punch back.”
He said California is the size of 21 state populations combined.
“I know they say `Don’t mess with Texas.’ Well, don’t mess with the great Golden State,” he said.
He said the California legislature will take up the issue next week to call a Nov. 4 special election to put new maps before voters to increase Democratic representation in Congress — offsetting the actions of Texas. The move would set aside the current California district maps that were drawn by an independent commission.
Newsom stressed that the move would only be temporary, with the state returning to the independent redistricting process after the 2030 Census. He defended the move, saying it is essential to counter what he called a clear attempt to rig the 2026 mid-term congressional elections — noting that Trump called Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and told him to come up with five more GOP seats to ensure the party maintains a majority in the House.
“He’s going to lose the mid-terms. He knows … his presidency ends in 17 months,” Newsom said. “He knows it. Why else would he try to rig the system? Why else would you make the phone call?”
He added, “These guys are not playing by any set of rules.” And he urged other Democrat-majority states to also redraw their district lines to counter the GOP effort.
Corrin Rankin, chair of the California Republican Party, issued a statement this week saying the party would go to court to fight Newsom’s plans to redistrict the state.
“The California Republican Party will fight it in the courts, at the ballot box and in every community,” Rankin said.
Abbott told Fox News that if California does move to redraw its district, Texas will simply counter by amending its lines again to add even more Republican seats in Washington.
“If California thinks they’re going to move their needle to the extreme and eliminate five Republican numbers of the United States Congress there, Texas is not going to do five: We will add 10 more Republican seats using the same procedure they are using in California,” Abbott said.
Christian Martinez, Western regional press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, issued a statement Thursday blasting Newsom’s proposal.
“Gavin Newsom’s latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power, silencing California voters, and propping up his pathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream,” Martinez said. “Newsom’s made it clear: he’ll shred California’s Constitution and trample over democracy — running a cynical, self-serving playbook where Californians are an afterthought and power is the only priority.”
Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, called Newsom’s plan “corrupt.”
“California politicians are using Trump as the window dressing to advance a corrupt and dishonest scheme to end fair elections in our state by eliminating the non-partisan Independent Citizens’ Redistricting Commission process to draw election districts,” DeMaio said. “This is a blatant attempt to rig elections by allowing politicians to choose voters rather than letting voters choose politicians — and if this measure passes, the independent Citizens’ Redistricting process will be dead forever.”
It was unclear how many people were detained in the ICE raid that occurred in Little Tokyo just as Newsom’s news conference was beginning. Mayor Karen Bass showed up at the scene after the ICE agents had departed.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem addressed the raid during an appearance on Fox News as video of the operation was shown.
“Every single one of our ICE and Border Patrol operations is built on information, on investigative work,” Noem said.
She said an operation is planned “because of who they think could be in that area and what they have for information that shows there are illegal criminals there. Remember we’re focusing on the worst of the worst.”
Noem said she didn’t know specifics about the Los Angeles raid outside Newsom’s event, “but it was based on the investigative work that all law enforcement officers do for every single operation they conduct to make sure they’re getting dangerous criminals off our streets.”
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