Obama backs California’s response to Texas redistricting

Former President Barack Obama said he supports California Democrats’ efforts to redraw congressional districts aiming to offset a similar move passed Wednesday by Texas Republicans. “I wanted just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas, and take it to the voters and see what happens,” Obama said on Tuesday in a rare political intervention and his first public comments expressing support for the push by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

“But I want to be very clear: 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.” The Texas House of Representatives passed a new Trump-backed congressional map plan that would net the Republican party as many as five additional seats in next year’s midterms, potentially solidifying GOP control of Congress.

The 88-to-52 vote occurred along party lines. It came after Democratic lawmakers in Texas temporarily fled to deny the statehouse a quorum, thereby temporarily halting the redistricting effort. Obama was one of several prominent Democrats who called those lawmakers to commend them for their efforts to protect democracy. Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier spent Monday night locked in the Texas House of Representatives in Austin after refusing to sign a pledge to return for a vote on Republican redistricting proposals. Despite their efforts, the GOP proposal passed. The Texas state Senate passed a similar map on Sunday, and the new map is expected to head to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk later this week. In July, President Trump said that he was urging the Texas GOP to redraw state congressional maps to gain more Republican seats, with the president later claiming the GOP was “entitled” to more seats in the state following his successful 2024 campaign there.

In the US House of Representatives, Republicans hold a single-digit majority and are facing an unfavorable electoral dynamic ahead of the 2026 midterms in November next year. To head off GOP efforts to preserve their majority by creating new districts, Democrats have been spurred into action. After the new map was passed in the Lone Star State, Governor Newsom of California posted on X about his counterpart: “Congratulations to @GregAbbott_TX — you will now go down in history as one of Donald Trump’s most loyal lapdogs.” He added: “Shredding our nation’s founding principles. What a legacy.” Newsom is backing a plan in California to redraw congressional maps via a ballot measure in November; his party plans to shift five Republican-held districts to increase the number of Democratic voters in them in a direct response to Texas.

The governor has said California’s new maps will be temporary, an approach Obama described as a “smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.” Obama noted that, as the process must be voted on, Californians would have their say at the ballot box, unlike in Texas. “The fact that California voters will have a chance to weigh in on this makes this act consistent with our democratic ideals, rather than in opposition to our democratic ideals,” Obama said. “We’re not going to act as if anything is normal any longer. Yes, we’ll fight fire with fire. Yes, we will push back. It’s not about whether we play hardball anymore,” Newsom said at a virtual news conference with other Democratic leaders on Wednesday.