Former President Barack Obama has endorsed California Governor Gavin Newsom’s fight against Republican gerrymandering efforts in a Wednesday night social media post.
Newsom has been openly warning Texas Republicans that he will fight back after they began working to introduce a new congressional map that will deliver five additional House seats to the GOP. The Texas House passed that congressional map on Wednesday after weeks of legislative back and forth. It could be on Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk as soon as the end of the week for his signature.
Prior to Wednesday’s vote, the 57-year-old California governor had announced his own plan to redraw his state’s congressional districts to “offset the rigging of maps in red states.”
Obama’s post criticized the act of gerrymandering but said it was a necessary move to counteract Republicans.
“Over the long term, we shouldn’t have political gerrymandering in America, just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas,“ Obama wrote in his post.
“But since Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House and gerrymandering in the middle of a decade to try and maintain the House despite their unpopular policies, I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this.”
“He’s put forward a smart, measured approach in California, designed to address a very particular problem at a very particular moment in time,” Obama finished.
Newsom was quick to highlight Obama’s endorsement, thanking him in an X post, writing, “Thank you President Obama for backing Proposition 50 and standing up for America’s democracy.” A more hyperbolic post from his press office read, " HUGE NEWS: PRESIDENT OBAMA BACKS CALIFORNIA’S FIGHT TO SAVE DEMOCRACY WITH REDISTRICTING."
His tweet wasn’t the first time Obama had weighed in on the issue of the Texas GOP’s gerrymandering—last week, he spoke to many of the Texas Democrats who fled the state in an attempt to stave off a vote on the new maps in what was described as part pep talk, part strategy session.
Obama told his fellow Democrats during the meeting, “Those are trend lines that remind us this precious democracy that we’ve got is not a given. It’s not self-executed. It requires us to fight for it. It requires us to stand up for it.”
He also praised Newsom’s plan at a fundraising event on Tuesday, telling the crowd, “We’re only going to do it if and when Texas and/or other Republican states begin to pull these maneuvers. Otherwise, this doesn’t go into effect.”
With the Texas House approving the new congressional maps on Wednesday night, the ball is now in Newsom’s court; something he acknowledged with a short but straightforward post on X that simply reads: “It’s on, Texas.”
In another post on his official Governor account, he added, “See you in November.” California lawmakers have until Friday to decide whether or not to proceed with Newsom’s Proposition 50. If they do, Californians will be able to vote on the measure in a special election on November 4.
If the measure passes in November, the independent body that currently oversees redistricting in California would be paused, and redistricting power would be returned to the state legislature. The legislature would then be able to implement the proposed redrawn congressional maps that target five Republican districts, delivering them to Democrats and offsetting the five new GOP districts introduced by the Texas vote.
Trump celebrated the passing of the Texas measure in a late night Truth Social post, writing, “Big WIN for the Great State of Texas!!! Everything Passed, on our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. Texas never lets us down.”
“Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing. More seats equals less Crime, a great Economy, and a STRONG SECOND AMENDMENT. It means Happiness and Peace.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies have recently been weighing up whether or not to redraw their states own congressional maps, and Republicans in Indiana pledged their support for a redistricting effort in their own state earlier this week.
Trump also hit out at Newsom in a separate post, writing, “Gavin Newscum is way down in the polls. He is viewed as the man who is destroying the once Great State of California. I will save California!!!”
