Mocking Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom set to officially launch redistricting campaign
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
NEWSOM REDISTRICTING CAMPAIGN TO OFFICIALLY LAUNCH
Via Lia Russell…
Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to roll out an official campaign on Thursday in Los Angeles advocating for California to redraw its congressional districts and offset a similar GOP-led effort in Texas to net the party an additional five U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterms.
Newsom said Wednesday the state Legislature would follow through with drawing new maps after claiming President Donald Trump “missed” a deadline to honor his request to block Texas and other red states from redrawing their congressional maps. The maps would then go to California voters in a special Nov. 4 election.
“DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, ‘MISSED’ THE DEADLINE!!!” Newsom’s press office wrote in an X post parroting the president’s all-caps posting style. “CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE ‘BEAUTIFUL MAPS,’ THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!).”
‘TACO’ refers to a Democratic meme acronym that stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
It wasn’t immediately clear who would join Newsom in Los Angeles, though some of the Democratic Party’s most powerful leaders, like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi have thrown their weight behind redistricting.
On a podcast episode he released Wednesday with former Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, Newsom said the redistricting war was the Democrats’ chance to coalesce and push back on Trump’s agenda.
He cited an Atlantic article about how Adolf Hitler dismantled German democracy in 53 days, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to jail O’Rouke for aiding Texas Democrats who fled the state to prevent the Republicans from moving forward with redistricting.
“They’re rigging this election in plain sight. So this is back to just code red. We got to move from the rhetoric. We have got to take action,” Newsom said.
Longtime elections official now state assemblymember Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, has created an online portal for the public to provide input about the redistricting process.
“I urge all Californians to take a few minutes to participate,” Pellerin wrote in an emailed statement. “Every comment counts and your feedback will help keep our process transparent, fair, and responsive to the people we serve.”
NEW CHECKLIST JUST DROPPED
Via Lia Russell….
National good governance group Common Cause has more to say about its pivot on California’s mid-decade redistricting effort.
The organization initially opposed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s directive that the California Legislature match Texas by redrawing its own maps. However, the organization had an about-face this week, issuing a statement that said calls for the Golden State to adhere to independent redistricting would “amount to a call for unilateral political disarmament in the face of authoritarian efforts to undermine fair representation and people-powered democracy.”
In a Wednesday briefing with reporters, group leaders said Congress, the courts, and leaders in both parties have failed to pass legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act or the Freedom to Vote Act. Both bills, which have languished in the Senate since their respective 2015 and 2019 introductions, would block states from chipping away at anti-disenfranchisement and anti-gerrymandering laws. The Supreme Court will also hear a Louisiana redistricting case in October that could weaken parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
“We can have a purist mentality and say all gerrymandering is bad, which is where we actually stand, but we also recognize the political moment that we are in, and these political parties are going to do it regardless,” said Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solomón.
The group rolled out a checklist for judging whether mid-decade redistricting efforts would be fair, proportional, reflect public input, would not dilute communities of interest, were time-limited, and called on lawmakers to publicly endorse reform efforts like the John Lewis Act and Freedom to Vote Act.
Solomón said Common Cause would continue to oppose gerrymandering, likening the group’s evolving stance to the Supreme Court: “Common Cause has not shifted. The landscape has. And so we will continue to hold true to our values in this political upheaval. But we refuse to carry the water for any political party.”
Common Cause is the first group to shift away from other good governance groups that have opposed Newsom and Democrats’ calls to match Republican redistricting efforts in Indiana, Texas, Missouri and Florida. In California, Voters First, a campaign funded by Republican donor Charles Munger, has said it will oppose Newsom and state legislators’ matching efforts.
Last week, the League of Women Voters said it continued to oppose redistricting outside of Census counts.
FEINSTEIN’S TREASURES
Via David Lightman…
Items from the estate of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein and will be available at a live auction Friday morning at Clars Auctions in Oakland.
Bids will be taken on items from Feinstein’s San Francisco mansion. “from the personal collection that graced her iconic San Francisco residence,” Clars said in a news release.
“Known for her elegance and refined sensibilities, Senator Feinstein’s collection includes richly upholstered furnishings in leather and down, fine Chinese carpets, English and Continental antiques, and distinctive Chinoiserie-style pieces,” it said.
Feinstein died in September 2023, after serving 31 years as a U.S. senator from California. She was California’s first female U.S. senator and its longest-serving senator. A San Francisco native, she was the city’s mayor from 1978 to 1988.
Her estate, Clars said, “features a sophisticated array of barware, stemware, and serveware, along with fine art selections — landscapes, still lifes, and architectural views of San Francisco — that reflect the senator’s deep connection to the city she so proudly represented.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“President Trump’s attempt to extort $1 billion from our public education system is the action of an authoritarian who is attempting to strong-arm one of the top public research institutions in the nation — in yet another effort to attack California.”
— State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Alhambra, chair of the Senate Education Committee, regarding the Trump administration’s efforts to force the university into paying a $1 billion fine for alleged antisemitism
BEST OF THE BEE
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This story was originally published August 14, 2025 at 4:55 AM.
