Gov. Gavin Newsom is considering calling a special election to redraw congressional districts in California to counteract similar efforts in Texas that would favor the Republican Party in the 2026 midterm elections.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump asked Texas Republicans to redraw their congressional maps so the party would pick up five more seats in the midterms as the Democratic Party tries to make a political comeback next year. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called a special session in the Republican-majority Texas Legislature in response.

Newsom, who has been publicly soul searching amid his party’s defeat last year, said Tuesday on the “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast that he was exploring the possibility of calling a special election doing the same in heavily blue California.

“Maybe we’ll do it here in California,” he said in response to Trump’s mandate that Texas Republicans redistrict to win the GOP five more seats. Newsom is believed to be exploring a run for president in 2028 after he terms out of the governor’s mansion next year.

On Wednesday Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, D-Bakersfield, announced that she would challenge Republican Rep. David Valadao, whom Democrats perceive as vulnerable because he voted for Trump’s tax bill to gut Medicaid, which two-thirds of his Central Valley district relies on.

At 31 million people, Texas is the U.S.’s second-most populated state and has 38 congressional districts, 25 of which are held by Republicans. California, with 39 million people, is the most populous state, and has 43 Democratic and nine Republican members of Congress.

Newsom compared Trump’s request to his pressuring of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the state’s 2020 election results.

“Not dissimilar to him saying, ‘Find me 12,000 votes,’ ” Newsom quipped.

In most states, members of the legislature redraw political maps following new census numbers every decade, but California voters in 2008 delegated the task to an independent, citizen-led commission.

Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, said he supported the initiative at the time despite criticism from his own party members.

“I actually was one of the few Democrats back in the day (to support it) when we created the independent redistricting commission, which I think personally should be the case in every state,” Newsom said. “This is ridiculous. This gerrymandering is outrageous. I don’t like it on either side, and so I supported that.”

Now, with Republicans threatening to tip the balance of Congress in their favor, Newsom said redistricting in California was the “right thing” to do.

“If these guys are playing by a totally different set of rules in democracies, in the balance, which you can start to go down, then it’s not even a rabbit hole,” he told former Barack Obama aides Tommy Vietor and Jon Favreau. Favreau and Vietor now host the liberal “Pod Save America” podcast.

Newsom said that his office was speaking with lawmakers about redistricting, as the constitution allows the legislative body “some latitude” in between censuses to do so.

“That’s a legal theory that a lot of legal scholars have advanced, and full disclosure, we’re in the process of looking at it,” he said. “When I look at it, at the ground these guys are leveling, and the core tenets of our democracy, our republic literally being taken down in real time, I’d be in peril of being judged not to have lived, if I don’t at least explore an alternative to save our country.”

His office declined to elaborate further on the governor’s comments.

How would it work?

Unless a court finds a political map violates the federal Voting Rights Act and orders it changed, legislative and congressional boundaries are typically only redrawn every ten years.

Moving forward with a middecade redistricting plan would likely require California state lawmakers to reclaim redistricting authority from the commission, even temporarily, and might require voter sign-off, said redistricting consultant Paul Mitchell.

“It’s possible that the Legislature could say, ‘Nothing in (state redistricting law) prohibits us from doing a middecade redistricting, so we’re going to do it,’” Mitchell said, adding the move would likely be challenged in court.

“The second possibility is they jam a ballot measure through the legislature as quick as possible” and call a special election for later this year. If voters approve it, the Democratic-controlled Legislature could immediately meet in a special session to draw new maps.

There are at least three California districts, including one in the Sacramento region, that Democrats could easily redraw to give their candidates an edge, Mitchell said.

“You could make Kevin Kiley’s district come into Sacramento more and make a strong, strong argument that Sacramento, Roseville, Placer, those areas are all a community of interest” that should be grouped together. By swapping rural areas for more left-leaning Sacramento neighborhoods, the district held by Kiley, a Republican, would become more competitive.

Mitchell, whose company Redistricting Partners contracts with local governments in California and New York’s statewide redistricting commission, said whether or not voters agree with the move, it’s low stakes for Newsom and Democratic lawmakers to try it.

“There’s no downside to trying these two options because if they fail, you still have maps that are really pretty good for Dems that are still in place,” he said.

Holding on to power

There’s been growing sentiment among Democratic members of Congress from California and elsewhere to fight back against the bid to have Texas redistrict.

Democrats need a net gain of three seats next year to win control of the House and make New York’s Hakeem Jeffries its speaker. California House members met with Jeffries on Wednesday.

Afterward, two of the delegation leaders issued a statement.

“If Texas moves forward with an egregious middecade redistricting, this cannot go unanswered. If their record of throwing 17 million people off their health insurance to handout billionaire tax breaks was popular, they wouldn’t have to redraw their maps to try to hold on to power,” said Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, chair of the state House delegation, and Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, House Democratic Caucus chairman. Both attended the meeting.

Rep. Ami Bera, D-Sacramento, did not attend the meeting. He prefers that an independent commission set congressional district boundaries.

But given political realities — namely the threat that Texas and other red states could redistrict to help their chances of retaining the majority — the congressman understands why legislative action could be needed in California to redistrict some of the lines.

Jeffries talked about the issue at a news conference Tuesday. He criticized an “aggressive and egregious gerrymander that will undermine the ability of Texans to participate in a free and fair election and determine who will represent them in the United States Congress.”