Graphic by Dani Ramirez
Written by Steven Mynott
California and Texas lead the charge in a redistricting fight that could shape elections for years to come. In anticipation of the 2026 midterm elections, both states seek to create new voting districts in favor of their preferred political parties. Learn the history of restricting and how it is being used today.
What is gerrymandering?
To understand what gerrymandering is, we must first understand what voting districts are. Every state is divided into a map of voting districts, in which each elects a single congressional representative, with the state’s population determining the number of districts per state. Voting districts are intended to be comprised of roughly equal populations, usually consisting of politically aligned communities, with each state being responsible for creating its own district map. CI is located in California’s 26th District, currently represented by Democratic Congresswoman Julia Brownley.
Voting districts are typically redrawn at the beginning of each decade in response to new census data, in order to accurately reflect changes in population distribution. This process is known as redistricting. Gerrymandering, however, is a corruption of the normally well-intended process in which district boundaries are purposefully manipulated to give an unfair advantage to one political party over another. The word gerrymander is named after former Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry. He enacted new voting district maps in 1812 that solidified Democratic-Republican Party control of the state in pursuit of minimizing Federalist Party representation. Gerrymandering commonly results in irregularly shaped voting districts, in some instances being likened to the shape of a salamander. Thus, the term gerrymander is a blend of Gerry’s name and the word salamander.
The responsibility of redistricting falls on individual states, and not the federal government. Gerrymandering occurs when political partisans redraw district lines in a way that influences the representative balance in a state. Historically, it has been employed to deprive racial and ethnic minorities of representation.
California and Texas are currently engaged in a fight over gerrymandering that could reshape the future of the U.S. House of Representatives as early as the 2026 midterm election.
What is going on in Texas?
Texas Republicans proposed new district maps in July 2025 with the intention of creating five new Republican districts in the state, solidifying Republican legislative control of Texas. The move is unusual because redistricting typically occurs following an end-of-decade census. President Donald Trump is pleased with the effort, stating, “We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. … I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.” Texas Governor Gregg Abbot signed the new district maps into law on Aug. 29.
Opponents of the new district maps say that they discriminate against Black and Latino voters in Texas. Both the NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law have filed lawsuits challenging the new Texas district maps, alleging racial bias.
Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP, stated, “The state of Texas is only 40 percent white, but white voters control over 73 percent of the state’s congressional seats. It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional.”
Damon T. Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said, “The Trump administration told Texas in no uncertain terms to create illegal, discriminatory maps, and Texas actively carried out the mandate. This is an intentionally harmful and discriminatory effort, and we must call it out as such. Black and Brown voters in Texas deserve better. They are legally and constitutionally entitled to fair representation. These maps do the opposite, and they must not stand.”
How is California Responding?
With the announcement of Texas’s redistricting plan, California Governor Gavin Newsom is spearheading efforts to do the same in California. The idea is to fight fire with fire. As Texas moves to create five new Republican voting districts, Newsom wants California to counter by creating new Democratic voting districts in a redistricting of its own. However, the redistricting process is more complicated in California than it is in Texas. Unlike Texas, California needs voters to approve rule changes via a special election for the state to pass new districts mid-decade. Newsom defended the California effort to put new voting districts in place, “Wake up, we’re losing this country in real time. This is not bloviating. This is not exaggeration. It’s happening.”
Democratic State Senator Sabrina Cervantes from Riverside, California, echoed Newsom’s sentiment, “Texas is actively reducing their own competitive seat count, so then do you expect our communities to remain silent while their voices are being stripped away from Washington?”
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes redistricting efforts in both California and Texas: “It is very wrong what they’re doing to Texas, and it is very wrong what they’re trying to do in California. It is not at all serving the people. It is serving the party.”
The Supreme Court of California has shot down two GOP-led lawsuits aimed at stopping the redistricting efforts. The lawsuits were petitioned by Senator Tony Strickland from Huntington Beach, California, Senator Suzette Martinez Valladares from Santa Clarita, California, Assemblymember Tri Ta from Westminster, California and Assemblymember Kate Sanchez from Rancho Santa Margarita, California. They said in a joint statement, “We are watching in real time the destruction of law-and-order, and of our republic at the hands of a Democratic governor, Democratic super-majority legislature and Supreme Court.”
The question will be put to voters under Proposition 50 in a Nov. 4 special election later this year. California voters can expect to start hearing more and more about redistricting as we approach the November election. Millions of dollars are being poured into campaigns on both sides of the issue.
What Comes Next?
Other states have been in talks about following suit with their own redistricting efforts. On the Republican side, states like Indiana, Ohio and Florida have expressed interest, as well as Democratic voting states like Maryland, Illinois and New York. There is fear that the country is heading towards an all-out gerrymandering arms race. If this were to occur, Republicans would have a distinct advantage for three reasons: there are more Republican states than Democratic states, Democratic voting states tend to have stricter rules about when and how they can redistrict and many Democratic states are already heavily gerrymandered.
