Originally published on August 20th, 2025 by the San Mateo Daily Journal and written by Holly Rusch
As California Democrats prepare for an unprecedented retaliatory redistricting effort, San Mateo County lawmaker say it’s the only option to prevent a Trump-initiated rigging of the upcoming 2026 midterms.
California’s redistricting would only kick in if other states go forward with their own midcycle redistricting policies. It will likely offer voters the option to create more Democratic House of Representatives seats in the state after Texas lawmakers first made plans to do the same in favor of Republicans.
“We’ve got to fight fire with fire,” state Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, said. “We can’t just sit back and let them try to rig the system. It’s disheartening they would do this, but we’ve got to fight fire with fire.”
The gerrymandering tit-for-tat began with a Texas effort to change its own state district maps to add five additional Republican House of Representative seats, an effort that is currently ongoing and only requires approval by the Texas Legislature, not voter consent.
The Texas redistricting was intentionally designed to illegally ensure the House remains in Republican control and unable to check President Trump’s unprecedented consolidation of power, Democrats are arguing.
U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, said he was supportive of a short-term retaliative effort in California to counter Trump’s plans, but that national redistricting reform was necessary in the long term to prevent future problems.
“I fully support what’s going to be going to the ballot in special elections, so we can counter this attack on democracy. But we all understand that this is a temporary move, to counter what the president is calling for in Republican states,” Mullin said “Over the long haul, we need to try to enact national redistricting reform, because this political civil war is not sustainable.”
It’s been Democrats, not Republicans, who’ve supported redistricting reform to eliminate gerrymandering in the past, Mullin said, but argued that the times were so drastic they required dramatic, last-ditch efforts.
“I know my Democratic constituents want us to be fighting with every tool in our toolbox, and in [this] case, that is about winning a special election so we can counter what is coming from this president,” he said.
If California voters pass it in November, the plan would override California’s independent citizen commission — which decides how district lines are drawn — and redraw new maps more favorable to Democrats until 2030.
State legislators will vote on whether to send the new maps to California voters before Aug. 22. Given a Democratic supermajority in both chambers, it’s unlikely such legislation would fail in a floor vote — however, Republicans recently have sued in court to stop the new maps, an effort that’s still ongoing.
In a statement, Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, reiterated that now was the time for California to fight back.
“Donald Trump has unapologetically targeted California time and again over the past six months — targeting workers who power our economy, targeting California’s best in the world UC system. … Trump and Republicans now want to rig our democracy to guarantee they remain in power,” Berman said. “We did not choose this fight, we do not want this fight, but with our democracy on the line, California cannot run away from this fight.”
U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-San Jose, also summed it up succinctly in a statement.
“This is a necessary but temporary response to an authoritarian takeover of our electoral system,” he said. “While we’d all prefer other means, we cannot take a knife to a gunfight.”