Democrats reveal the cards of the California redistribution proposal

Democrats unveiled a proposal on Friday who could give The dominant political party of California and five other seats at the American house in an offer To win the fight To control the congress next year.

The plan provides unusually timed remodeling of the chamber district lines to considerably strengthen the democratic advantage in the state before the mid-term elections, when the Republicans defend the fragile majority of the Party Chamber.

This is equivalent to a counter drop In terms of Texas Republicans to occupy five democratically detained seats and redraw them to promote the GOP at the request of President Trump as he tries to avoid losing control of the congress and, with him, of prospect for his conservative agenda in the last part of his mandate.

California’s effort seeks to take five of the nine districts of the GOP of the State and to make them more favorable to the Democrats. Just like in Texas, however, it is by no means a guarantee that the Democrats would win these five seats if a new Californian card becomes the law.

Doing a quarter of work would probably require a modification of the constitution of the State of California. The revision of the current card which is in law should be adopted by a vote of two thirds both in the State Assembly and in the State Senate, and then be approved by California voters during an election.

California legislators are expected to return to Sacramento on August 18 in the Rediscovery Conference. California’s state legislature will have a short period to move forward.

If it is approved by voters during a special election in November, California’s plan could almost erase the republican members of the Chamber in the most populous state in the country. The Democratic Plan is intended to win the 48 of its 52 seats in the United States, now for 43.

The proposal was published by the Branch of the Chamber Democrats’ campaign, the campaign committee of the Democrat Congress. The Democrats of the State legislature will hold hearings and plan to vote on new cards next week.

“This is more than tracing lines on a map. It is a question of drawing a line in the sand to prevent Texas and Trump from fueling the elections,” said the Democratic Chief of the State Senate Mike McGuire in a statement.

New districts have limits to stimulate the democratic edge

While a general notion behind the drawing of the districts consists in uniting what are called communities of interest – the districts and cities which share similar concerns or demographic features – the proposed remappage creates a jigsaw of district of strange form to maximize democratic influence.

The 1st Congress district is currently anchored in the corner of the state’s preservative and is represented by the Republican representative Doug Lamalfa, a supporter of Trump. The district has an advantage of recording the GOP of almost 18 points.

Under the proposal, the Democrats would end up with a recording advantage of 10 points in the district after having brought radical to include parts of the Sonoma County strongly democratic near the Pacific coast.

In an article on the social platform X, Lamalfa described the proposal for “absolutely ridiculous”. The first district of the Lamalfa Congress would include parts of Santa Rosa under the proposed maps, an area which is in the democratic district of the Democratic representative Mike Thompson.

In the battlefield, the 41st district east of Los Angeles, represented by the long -standing republican representative, Ken Calvert, the Democratic and Republican recordings are currently divided.

But in the redesigned district, democratic recording would increase to 46%, the registration of the GOP falling to 26%.

The other Republicans whose districts would see major changes intended to promote democrats are the representative Kevin Kiley in northern California, the representative Ken Calvert in the county of Riverside, the representative David Valadao in the central belt Valley Farm and the representative Darrell Issa in the county of San Diego. In addition, assimilated democrat holders would see their padded districts with additional left voters.

“Well, obviously, all the purpose of Newsom was to return to the era to trace lines according to the partisan political factors, while politicians trace their lines,” Kiley told CBS Sacramento earlier on Friday.

The current district of Kiley covers the suburbs, small cities and mountain communities in the Sacramento region on the border of Eastern California.

The release of the plan came the same day that the Texas Republicans began a second special session to approve the new cards from the Congress sought by Trump.

The first special GOP session in Texas ended without approving new political cards, thwarted by Democrats who organized a snap of almost two weeks which meant that the legislators were not present to adopt legislation. Governor Greg Abbott then quickly called a second session that started without the quorum necessary to lead business.

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday that his condition will hold a special referendum of November 4 on the redesigned districts.

“We cannot get up and watch this democracy disappear the district by district of the whole country,” said Newsom.

The announcement has marked the first time that any state beyond Texas has officially plunged into Trump’s fight, although several governors and legislative leaders of the two parties have threatened such movements.

Representative Richard Hudson de Caroline du Nord, who heads the campaign arm of the Chamber’s GOP, said that Newsom, potential presidential candidate in 2028, “shredd the constitution of California and favors voters”.

“The Californians oppose Newsom because they will not leave a selfish politician to regain the system to continue his career,” said Hudson, who heads the National Committee of the Republican Congress.

How will voters react?

Under the current law, California has an independent redistribution commission which was approved by voters at the beginning of this century. Newsom stressed that the election effort would not get rid of the Commission, although it would mainly suspend it. If the measurement passes, the commission would then take up the possibility of writing cards after the 2030 census.

A great risk for democrats is whether voters will be open to the reservation of the district limits designed by the independent commission for those shaped for a partisan advantage.

Some people have already said that they would continue the effort. Former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, A longtime opponent From the partisan redistribution, said that he was not putting himself on the side of the Democrats even after talking to Newsom. He posted a photo of himself on Friday at the gymnasium bearing a t-shirt that said: “Finish gerrymandering”, with a reference to obscenity and politicians.

“I am preparing for the Gerrymandering battle,” said Schwarzenegger.

House control could be summed up in a few seats in 2026

At the national level, the partisan composition of existing district lines puts the Democrats in the three seats of a majority. Of the 435 seats in total, only several dozen districts are competitive. Thus, even slight changes in a few states could affect party control.

New cards are generally drawn once a decade after the census – the last being in 2020. Many states, including Texas, give legislators the power to draw cards. California is one of those who strengthen the independent committees of the task.

If it is approved, a new Californian card would only take effect if a republican state makes its own redistribution. It would remain thanks to the 2030 elections. After that, the Democrats say, they would make the power of cartography to the voters of the independent commission approved in 2008.

Hunter Woodall and

Nidia Cavazos

contributed to this report.