Republicans on the state and national level have come out strong against California’s tit-for-tat redistricting war with Texas.

In a news conference held just moments after state Democratic lawmakers threw their support behind calling a special election in numbers that almost assure it will happen, state Republicans railed against the plan.

“We should not abandon the principle of fair and independent redistricting here in California just for political expediency,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City. California’s independent redistricting commission has been drawing congressional maps since 2010.

On the national front, House speaker Mike Johnson Monday told the Republicans’ well-funded national House campaign committee to “use every measure and resource possible to fight the California Democrats’ illegal power grab.”

“Gavin Newsom’s latest attempt to disenfranchise millions of California voters was written in the dark of night by the DCCC — more than 2,700 miles away from Sacramento in Washington,” the Louisiana Republican said in an X post. “This is a slap in the face to Californians who overwhelmingly support the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.”

It’s anyone’s guess as to what California voters will favor should the question reach the ballot in November. Polling thus far has been contradictory, with an early survey showing voters wanting California to act, and a recent Politico poll showing firm support for preserving the redistricting commission.

California Republicans allege ‘vote rigging’

For the most part, California Republican lawmakers claim that no state should be participating in gerrymandering.

“We believe, at the end of the day, the voters want to keep fair and independent elections,” said Republican leader Gallagher. “They don’t want politicians drawing their own lines.”

California Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, introduced a joint resolution Monday calling on Congress to require all states to have their own independent redistricting commissions. Multiple lawmakers said they’d called on members of their party to stop the redistricting arms race, although none shared specifics.

DeMaio also challenged the statement that the California effort was being done in response to Texas’s redistricting efforts, and claimed lawmakers here had been “lying in wait” for a chance to gerrymander.

He brought up a report from Sacramento news station KCRA 3 that people close to the negotiations alleged Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire had conditioned his support for the new map for it being drawn a certain way to benefit a potential run.

“This is vote rigging happening inside our Legislature, and for goodness' sakes, we need a federal investigation of this entire process, because it is absolutely corrupt to the core,” DeMaio said.

In an emailed statement, McGuire’s office said the new maps are “about the future of our state, our country, and our democracy — and Trump’s attempt to steal the election.”

“The pro tem is focused on the job he has leading the Senate, and any speculation on who will run for these seats before voters even have a say is wildly premature and inappropriate.”

National Republicans direct ire at California

Although the Legislature still needs to approve the maps, special election and constitutional amendment, a larger battle may be brewing on the national front.

With Johnson’s instruction, the National Republican Congressional Committee will now get involved in fighting Newsom’s effort to redraw California’s redistricting maps in a bid for Democrats to win five of the nine House seats Republicans now hold.

Democrats need a net gain of three seats next year to win control of the House.

At the NRCC, Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said his group “is prepared to fight this illegal power grab in the courts and at the ballot box to stop Newsom in his tracks.”

Johnson said in his statement that, “Unlike other states, California must shred its own Constitution to succeed in its desperate gambit to ‘end the Trump presidency.’ Voters in California and across the nation see through this partisan stunt.”

He criticized Newsom directly, saying the governor “should spend less time trampling his state’s laws for a blatant power grab, and more time working to change the disastrous, far-left policies that are destroying California

“Newsom obviously wants to launch a presidential campaign on the backs of disenfranchised California voters, but it will not work.”

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