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Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke to the nation from Los Angeles, CA where he laid out his plan to fight back against Trump’s effort to rig the 2026 election by asking the people of California to redistrict to neutralize Trump’s Texas congressional district gerrymander.
Watching Gov. Newsom today, it is clear how much his strategy has changed since the beginning of the year. Gavin Newsom has gone from hosting a podcast that featured discussions with MAGAs like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk to leading the charge and understanding exactly where Democratic voters are.
Newsom said:
Here we are in plain sight before one vote is cast in the 2026 midterm election and here he is once again trying to rig the system. He does not play by a different set of rules, he does not believe in the rules. As a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves from the way things have been done. It is not good enough to hold hands and have a candlelight vigil and talk about the way the world should be.
We need to recognize the cards that have been dealt and meet fire with fire. We need to be held to a higher level of accountability. That is what this is about. It is not complicated. We are doing this in reaction to a President Of The United States who called a sitting governor and said find me five seats. We are doing it in reaction to that act. We are doing it mindful of our higher angels and better angels. We are doing it mindful that we want to model better behavior, that we have been doing for 15 years in the state of California with our redistricting commission.
We cannot unilaterally disarm.
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We cannot stand back and watch democracy disappear. We cannot stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district, all across this country. Not just in Texas, but also in Missouri, where JD Vance went a week ago, Indiana, Ohio, and Florida. We need to stand up — not just California — other blue states need to stand up. We need to be firm in our resolve. We are here in that light. I am grateful to have remarkable partners in the legislature.
