House GOP Passes New Map that California
Prepares to Counter with Plan Voters Back
Gavin Newsom Trolls Way to Top of Social Media
57% of California Voters Back Newsom Plan
Capitol Inside
August 20, 2025
Texas House Republicans approved a new congressional map on Wednesday in a move that California Democrats are prepared to match with a redistricting plan that former President Barack Obama endorsed and a commanding majority of voters there support based on initial polling.
A bill designed for the GOP to flip five U.S. House districts cleared the Texas House afternoon on a vote of 88-52 after a tension-packed debate that spanned eight hours and left tempers smoldering in its wake. The map in House Bill 4 gained tentative approval on an exclusive party-line vote of 88-53 before Speaker Dustin Burrows adjourned the chamber and gaveled it back into business four minutes later for a final tally on the congressional redistricting measure.
The House action shifted the fight to the Texas Senate where Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick plans to move it with breakneck speed as long as the Democrats there do not follow the lead of 55 counterparts in the Capitol's west wing and disappear in unison for the sake of preventing a vote without a quorum.
Some House Democrats said they're holding out hope that their party's members across the rotunda will walkout to delay a vote on the bill or to kill it. All of the Senate's 11 Democrats would have to be absent to block a vote on the GOP plan.
Two of those - veteran State Senators Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen and Judith Zaffirini of Laredo - oppose the redistricting plan but have appeared prepared to stay and fight it on the floor. Nine other Senate Democrats appear to be ready to bolt if they had a chance to block a vote. Zaffirini and Hinojosa left the state with Democratic colleagues in a 2003 with a walkout on a similar effort that stalled a vote for more than a month in two special sessions until it fizzled during the fall.
But the Republicans congressional redistricting quest in Texas won't necessarily be successful just because they passed a bill if the GOP fails to protect its majority in the U.S. House in 2026. The victory the GOP celebrated here with the House vote on the new map would be an empty victory if California voters ratify a plan that Governor Gavin Newsom is pushing and has a better chance to pass as a result of the battle in Texas.
The Texas Republicans have put Newsom on a potential path to the presidency as an overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination in the latest polling since intervening in redistricting. Newsom's popularity has surged in direct correlation to the Republicans' push in Texas - and he's become a social media sensation trolling President Donald Trump as the instigator of the effort here.
A poll that was made public on Wednesday found that 57 percent of the voters in California support the ballot measure that Newsom is engineering compared to 35 percent who oppose it. The survey of 1,000 California voters was conducted by Democratic pollster David Binder from August 10 to August 14 while 55 Democratic representatives from Texas were blocking a quorum for a vote on the GOP map in House Bill 4 with a walkout that spanned 18 days.
State Rep. Gene Wu - a Houston Democrat who had a major role in the quorum-busting holdout as the party caucus chairman - predicted on Wednesday that the share of California voters who back the Newsom effort would soar beyond 60 percent after the Texas redistricting bill clears both chambers in Austin.
House Democrats said that U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told them the party was prepared to spend $100 million promoting the effort that requires voter approval in California. A California map that effectively cancels out the gains that the Texas Republicans envision from their plan could prompt Florida Republicans to strike next in a development that would be expected to trigger counter attacks by Democrats in Illinois, New York and other states and GOP lawmakers in several other red states.
If a chain reaction failed to materialize and the Texas and California efforts proved to be a wash, the Democrats could expect to be the favorite to win the U.S. House majority at the polls in 2026. After buying valuable time for Newsom and the Democrats in California, Texas House Democrats would make the vault from overnight celebrities to legendary if their party reclaims control of the U.S. House.
more to come ...
| 
