Gavin Newsom urges Trump to abandon Texas redistricting effort in letter | Donald Trump

The Democrats of Texas have once again hampered a republican effort to redraw the cards of the State Congress at the request of Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, urged the president to withdraw and defuse the arms race of redistribution which has spread across the country.

Enough Texas’ Democrats stayed outside the state on Monday to refuse the state legislature led by the Republicans the quorum necessary to proceed to the Congress of the desired Congress of Trump. Dozens of democratic state legislators left the state on Sunday, taking refuge in blue states such as Illinois and New York. They spent last week working to raise awareness and gather with their efforts to block the republican redistribution plan.

The confrontation has widened the redistribution wars, with Newsom and other leaders of the Democratic State threatening to draw reprisal cards if Texas goes ahead with its redistribution program.

In a letter to Trump on Monday, Newsom said that the president “played with fire” and warned that California was ready to consider new limits to “neutralize” all the gains that the Republicans hoped to make in Texas.

“This attempt to compel the Congress cards to maintain power before a single vote is expressed in the 2026 elections is an affront to American democracy,” said Newsom.

The Governor said he would prefer to leave the issue of the manufacturing of Congress cards to independent commissions, not to partisan legislative organizations and stressed that he retired “with pleasure” if other states abandoned their redistribution effort. But, Newsom said: “California cannot remain lazily as this takeover takes place.”

In a Snarky tweet, All-Caps intended to imitate Trump’s social media style, Newsom’s office summed up the letter: “Donald Trump, if you do not withdraw, we will be forced to make an effort to redraw cards in California to compensate for the rigging of cards in red states. But if the other states cancel their rebroadcast efforts, we will do the same.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comments. But when they were asked, Trump defended the Texas plan, arguing that he was “entitled to five other seats” because he won the state’s popular vote during the 2024 presidential election. The argument, however, is defective – a popular voting victory does not necessarily mean that a president’s party receives more seats at the Congress.

Despite Newsom’s call, the White House seeks to enlist other red states in the confrontation of redistribution. Last week, Vice-President JD Vance went to Indiana, where he met Republican leaders of the State to put them on the effort. The Republicans also targeted Ohio and Missouri.

At a press conference with several rare Texas legislators in Quorum, as well as California’s legislative leaders, Newsom described its plan to ask the voters to overcome the existing congress cards pulled by an independent commission and accept a new proposal to create five more democratic seats. The governor expressed his confidence that the voters would approve of the plan and said that the state’s legislature would act in time to get the measure on the ballot in November.

Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, and JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, also promised to take action.

In Texas Capitol in Austin, Dustin Burrows, the president of the State House, postponed the session for a few moments after opening it on Monday, in a fourth attempt failed since the Republican Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, summoned a special session largely to approve a mid-December redistribing plan which was aimed at launching five democratic seats and major vigor in the 2026.

In brief remarks, Burrows said that the Ministry of Public Security had deployed special agents across Texas to locate absent democrats who have civil mandates for their arrest. The agents, he said, were installed outside the members of the members, leading surveillance, hitting their doors on several occasions and calling their phones.

“So far, no one is at home,” he said, adding: “research continues and it will not stop.”

DPS has established a line of advice so that the public reports any information concerning the “where democratic legislators are”. But those who are out of the state are out of reach of the authorities of Texas.

Since Sunday, Texas Republicans have reached political, legal and financial issues for the Democrats who have left.

The Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, an ally of the president’s far right, asked the Supreme Court of the State to leave the seats of 13 Democrats outside the State. He also asked an Illinois court to enforce the civilian mandates of Texas. Abbott asked the Supreme Court of the State separately who seeks to withdraw Gene Wu, the Democratic Chief of the Chamber, from his functions. American senator John Cornyn, a republican confronted with a main right -wing challenge of Paxton, said that the FBI had agreed to help the Texas authorities to locate the Democrats, although the agency refused to comment and that it is not difficult to know what federal police have been accused of federal crimes.

The Democrats said they intended to stay away until at least the end of the special session in progress on August 19. Speaking earlier Monday from Illinois, the legislative of the state of Texas, Mihaela Plesa, said that she and her democratic colleagues were “more committed than ever” to prevent Trump from obtaining republican seats. “We do not take our walking orders to a man who thinks he is a king,” she said, adding: “We will not back up when the issues are high.”

But the Governor of Texas promised to call special sessions over and over again until enough return to the State House.

“If they get back into the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol,” said Abbott during a weekend interview on Fox News on Sunday.

Burrows said that the members would be responsible for “each gallon of gasoline, each mile traveler and each hour of extension” spent trying to find them. Under legislative rules, they face a daily fine of $ 500 for each absence.

Burrows said the house would try to convert on Tuesday.