On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced plans to fight fire with fire, directing his outrage at Texas’s redistricting efforts. While gerrymandering has been a fairly bipartisan practice for decades, Newsom declared on X that it risks “the destabilization of our democracy,” and that he will do the exact same thing in response.
He stated that if President Trump does not call on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to cease redistricting plans, “I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states.” (RELATED: The Spectacle Ep. 255: Texas Democrats’ Gerrymandering Meltdown)
Replies to Newsom’s X post quickly garnered criticism, as one user stated, “California has 52 Congressional seats and the GOP has 9 of them. That’s 17 [percent] for a state that votes nearly 40 [percent] Republican.” (RELATED: The Democrats Are Messing With Texas. It’s Time to Shut Down the Fleebagger Circus.)
Although Newsom ironically attacks redistricting as a threat to the country before vowing to engage in it, California does maintain the constitutional right to redraw its districts. Doing so could prove challenging, however, as several blue states have already been gerrymandered to a substantial level.
In late July, the New York Times noted this fact, stating, “States where Democrats would have complete control over any redistricting, such as Illinois and Maryland, are already gerrymandered heavily in their favor. Squeezing more Democratic seats out of those states would be a challenge.”
While the irony is stark, Newsom’s outrage over supposed election interference falls flat, as Texas and California have both had four standard decadal redistricting cycles since 1990. Even with rarer mid-decade redistricting taken into account, Texas has only gerrymandered on four additional occasions since 1990. Such actions are allowed as long as no racial discrimination or equal protection violations occur, meaning that timing itself is not prohibited by the Constitution.
Although Texas courts can legally order redrawing of congressional maps apart from the mandated cycle, the state’s only major, non-cyclical gerrymandering since 1990 occurred in 2003.
Although Left-wing critics accuse red states of redistricting to disenfranchise black voters, blue state map drawing often has the practical effect of racial gerrymandering. This is accomplished through the use of “packing,” a term for gerrymandering black voters into fewer districts, making those districts more heavily democratic.
Although Newsom accused President Trump and Abbott of election “rigging,” his planned retribution could represent interference in a process that is constitutionally granted to state legislatures. The only thing standing in the way of Newsom’s heroic rebuttal is the fact that the Left has been doing the same redistricting for decades.
READ MORE from Andrew Gondy: