After the devastating and deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott announced a special session that will include redistricting.
Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom responded by writing on social media: “Texas is using a special session about emergency disaster aid to redistrict their state and cheat their way into more Congressional seats. These guys have no shame. CA is watching — and you can bet we won’t stand idly by.”
As seen below, Newsom said of Abbott and his administration: “These guys are playing by a totally different set of rules. And here I am in California, trying to raise the bar of — sort of bipartisanship. Years and years ago we did independent redistricting, in a state that, I assure you with two-thirds majorities in the legislature, could gerrymander like no other state, and we’ve been playing fair, but I saw what he [Abbott] just did today, made me question that entire program.”
Texas is using a special session about emergency disaster aid to redistrict their state and cheat their way into more Congressional seats.
These guys have no shame.
CA is watching — and you can bet we won’t stand idly by. pic.twitter.com/6L48RMji6k
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 10, 2025
Note: The CLEAN Elections Act mandates independent redistricting commissions to prevent partisan gerrymandering. Newsom is accusing Texas of exploiting disaster relief proceedings to redraw maps favoring GOP control.
Newsom added: “I mean, these guys are going to do everything in their power to maintain their power…If we don’t take back the House of Representatives, I don’t want to be alarmist, I don’t want to say game over, that would be one of the most profound moments, I think, in modern history of this country.”
MAJOR BREAKING: Under cover of the flood, Greg Abbott has asked the Republican state legislature to ERASE four Black-majority Democratic districts by absorbing them into red ones. Isaiah Martin, one of the targets sounds the alarm: this would END democracy in Texas. SHARE THIS! pic.twitter.com/wO5hbKv75m — CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) July 11, 2025
Note: For years, President Trump and Gov. Newsom have been at odds, a rancor that has escalated as Trump has mobilized national guard troops and sent Marines into California against the Governor’s wishes. Trump has also repeatedly blamed California and its political leadership for the failure to contain the state’s wildfires. On that count Trump has told Newsom to rake the floors of forests as a solution, a suggestion which many environmental experts say reflects a lack of understanding of the science of wildfires in the United States.