California Governor Gavin Newsom, along with local congressional representatives, state officials and supporters, speaks as he announces the redrawing of California's congressional maps, calling on voters to approve a ballot measure, in response to a similar move in Texas being supported by U.S. President Donald Trump, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., August 14, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -California Governor Gavin Newsom led a campaign-style rally on Thursday for a redistricting plan to foil what he called President Donald Trump's bid to rig the next congressional race and cement his Republican House majority by redrawing the political map of Texas.

Newsom said his proposal, aimed for a special ballot on November 4, would create five new Democratic U.S. congressional seats in California, offsetting any seats Republicans can gain at Trump's behest by redrawing district lines in Texas less than four years after they were last revamped.

"Donald Trump, you have poked the bear and we will punch back," Newsom said, alluding to the grizzly that adorns California's state flag. "We're going to fight fire with fire."

The competing plans in California and Texas come ahead of the November 2026 mid-term elections, when Democrats are hoping to win back control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

While Democratic elected officials and labor union executives gathered inside an auditorium of the Democracy Center in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, at least two dozen armed federal border agents wearing riot helmets and balaclava masks milled about a street corner outside the building.

The governor called attention to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in his remarks, suggesting their presence was an attempt by Trump at intimidation.

"He's a failed president. Who else would send ICE at the same time we're having a conversation like this? Someone who is weak," Newsom said. The agents left the scene within 30 minutes of arriving.

Newsom's rally marked a potentially pivotal moment in Texas, where Republicans who control the state legislature neared the end of a special session that Republican Governor Greg Abbott had called to adopt a redistricting plan aimed at flipping five Democratic seats in the U.S. House in next year's elections.

Republicans now hold a narrow 219-212 majority in the House.

To prevent passage of the plan, more than 50 Democratic Texas lawmakers have fled the state capital in Austin and taken up temporary residence in various Democratic-led states, including California, thus denying Texas Republicans a legislative quorum.

The 30-day special session was to conclude on Friday, though Abbott was vowing an extension. It was unclear whether the redistricting moves by California Democrats would be enough to persuade the Texas Democrats to end their walkout.

OBAMA WEIGHS IN

Former President Barack Obama and his former attorney general Eric Holder addressed Texas House Democrats in a video conference call on Thursday, lauding their efforts to fight what they called an attempted "power grab" by Republicans.

Abbott and other Texas Republican leaders have steadily increased pressure on the state's Democratic lawmakers to return, threatening them with civil arrest warrants, fines, garnished salaries and ouster from the legislature.

Newsom and other elected Democratic officials who spoke at the rally, along with leaders of several of California's biggest labor unions, all framed their campaign as a battle to preserve Democracy and the rule of law in the face of a president with autocratic leanings unchecked by his own party in Congress.

The governor voiced confidence that both houses of California's state legislature would muster the two-thirds majority required to place the newly drawn maps before voters, in a special election to be held November 4.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Daniel Cole in Los Angeles and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)