After the devastating and deadly flooding in Kerr County, Texas over the Fourth of July weekend, MAGA-aligned Republican Governor Greg Abbott announced a special legislative session that included redistricting.
California Governor Gavin Newsom responded by accusing Abbott of using the special session, ostensibly about emergency disaster response, to also address redistricting the state. Newsom characterized the move as a way for the GOP to “cheat their way into more Congressional seats.”
[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.]
Try again, dumb dumb. https://t.co/h7rJhvrUcN pic.twitter.com/le0E8CR1iO
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 30, 2025
Countering Newsom, Vice President JD Vance wrote today on social media: “The gerrymander in California is outrageous. Of their 52 congressional districts, 9 of them are Republican. That means 17 percent of their delegation is Republican when Republicans regularly win 40 percent of the vote in that state. How can this possibly be allowed?”
Newsom replied with a map depicting “the most gerrymandered states in 2025” and added, “Try again, dumb dumb.” (Newsom is borrowing from President Trump’s name-calling playbook.)
The 12 states (in green) are Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Utah, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina.
Because Newsom didn’t source the map, many MAGA/Vance supporters are voicing their doubt about the validity of the data. Note: The data and map was provided by World Population Review, and was published by Newsweek in June 2024, when the magazine reported “The World Population Review analysis also drew on Texas’ post-2020 redistricting, which FiveThirtyEight analysts have suggested may have represented ‘the worst gerrymander in the country,’ and gerrymandering in Pennsylvania, which ‘dilutes the interests of major urban areas […] by dividing them among other districts.’”
One potential refutation of Vance’s claim that California has maxed out its Congressional districting advantages through “outrageous” gerrymandering is the threat posed by California Democrats to actually do what Vance says has already occurred and turn presently red districts blue.
As Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) writes: “Hope it’s worth it! Say goodbye to Kevin Kiley and 5 other CA Republicans.”
Hope it’s worth it! Say goodbye to Kevin Kiley and 5 other CA Republicans.
https://t.co/dmuTOxvdkT
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) July 30, 2025