California Poised to Redraw U.S. House Map
as Newsom Calls Abbott Bluff on Arms Race
Capitol Inside
August 13, 2025
California Governor Gavin Newsom took the lead in an epic game of chicken on Tuesday night when he said the nation's largest state would launch a new redistricting effort this week in a move that would put Democrats in control of the U.S. House and lead to President Donald Trump's downfall.
Newsom said he and other powerful Democrats in the Golden State would get the redistricting bid off the ground at a press conference on Friday - the same day that Texas Governor Greg Abbott plans to convene a second special session for the purpose of creating five new seats for Republicans on the congressional map here.
The California governor ignored Abbott's threat of having the Republicans craft a plan designed to give the GOP as many as 10 additional U.S. House districts on a Texas map on which its members currently have a 25-13 advantage over Democrats. Abbott went out on a limb on Monday night when he told CNN that Texas Republicans would target twice as many U.S. House seats for transformations to the GOP in special session if California retaliated with a redistricting plan of its own.
But Abbott and the Republicans here have failed to field a quorum in the Texas House for votes on a revised congressional map during most of the past two weeks in a special session that GOP leaders have agreed to end several days early so they can a second summer gathering in motion on Friday.
The Republicans started popping champagne corks on Tuesday night in the wake of reports on ABC News and Fox News on Texas House Democrats returning for the second session after holding the GOP's remap push hostage while breaking quorum for 11 days on trips to other states. Both networks quoted unnamed sources in stories that some of the Texas Democrats who've been gone have disputed in statements that that they've simply been weighing options for coming home and allowing the Republicans to pass their new congressional map.
Texas Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows did not offer any strategic advantage or other reasoning for calling it quits on the first called session five days sooner than it would lasted if GOP leaders and lawmakers had decided to go the distance.
The missing House Democrats could be messing with the heads of the Republicans by giving them reason to believe they'll be back by Friday when that isn't necessarily the case. Some of the absent Democratic state House members are in no hurry to get back amid plans to appear on Thursday at a press conference with Democrats in Indiana where Vice-President JD Vance is from.
Burrows, Abbott and other Republicans here have assured Texans that the Democrats are only delaying the inevitable by holding out on the redistricting plan. But that could be a moot point in the eventual final analysis on a war that the Texas Republicans started and may have no chance to win if the California governor is on the mark with his forecast on redistricting there.
Newsom revealed the California Democrats' plan to approve a new set of congressional maps in a post on X that mocked the president who he referred to as Donald "Taco" Trump for missing a deadline that the leader of the West Coast state had imposed a day earlier in an ultimatum to call off the dogs in Texas or face the consequences.
Newsom composed the social media message in all capital letters to make fun of Trump's writing style on his Truth Social page. Newsom followed that up on Wednesday with a post aimed at Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.
"WHEN SPEAKER “LITTLE MAN” JOHNSON IS STANDING IN “THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE,” HE CAN THANK DONALD “TACO” J. TRUMP. TRUMP MISSED A SIMPLE DEADLINE — SOMETHING HE HAS OFTEN DONE WITH HIS MANY FAILED BUSINESSES — NOW CALIFORNIA WILL “FIRE” HIM WITH NEW, “MORE BEAUTIFUL MAPS.” HIGHLY ANTICIPATED, “HISTORIC” PRESS CONFERENCE WITH YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR GAVIN CHRISTOPHER NEWSOM!!!!" Newsom wrote. "THANK YOU FOR YOU ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER."
The current U.S. House delegation from California has 43 Democrats and nine GOP members after the Democratic Party picked up three seats when Trump was on the ballot in 2024.
more to come ...
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