Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, on Thursday said state Democratic lawmakers would move forward with a redistricting plan intended as a direct response to a Republican-led effort in Texas to redraw congressional maps to control of theHouse majority after the midterm elections.
Newsom, joined by congressional Democrats and legislative leaders, unveiled his plan, known as the election rigging response act, to override the state’s independent map-making commission and approve new congressional lines that would aim to “neuter and neutralize” Texas’s proposal.
“Today is liberation day in the state of California,” Newsom said in Los Angeles, formally calling for a 4 November special election that would ask voters to approve a new congressional map. “We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country.”
As he spoke, at the intentionally chosen National Center for the Preservation of Democracy within the Japanese American National museum, federal agents, armed and masked, appeared outside of the building, led by Gregory Bovino, head of the border patrol’s El Centro sector. Local news footage showed one man being led away in handcuffs.
Speaking to reporters after the rally, Newsom called the presence of border patrol “sick and pathetic” and accused Trump of organizing the raid in an attempt to intimidate Democrats. “Wake up, America,” he said. “You will not have a country if he rigs this election.”
The White House did not immediately respond for comment.
