SACRAMENTO, Calif (AP) — California voters will decide in November whether to approve a redrawn congressional map designed to help Democrats win five more U.S. House seats next year, after Texas Republicans advanced their own redrawn map to pad their House majority by the same number of seats at President Donald Trump’s urging.
California lawmakers voted mostly along party lines Thursday to approve legislation calling for the special election. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has led the campaign in favor of the map, then quickly signed it — the latest step in a tit-for-tat gerrymandering battle.
“We don’t want this fight and we didn’t choose this fight, but with our democracy on the line, we will not run away from this fight,” Democratic Assemblyman Marc Berman said.
Republicans, who have filed a lawsuit and called for a federal investigation into the plan, promised to keep fighting it.
Listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern.
