By JIM VERTUNO and NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press

The national redistricting battle enters its next phase Thursday as California Democrats are scheduled to pass a new congressional map that creates five winnable seats for their party, a direct counter to the Texas House’s approval of a new map to create more conservative-leaning seats in that state.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has engineered the high-risk strategy in response to President Donald Trump’s own brinkmanship. Trump pushed Texas Republicans to reopen the legislative maps they passed in 2021 to squeeze out up to five new GOP seats to help the party stave off a midterm defeat.

Unlike in Texas, where passage by the Republican-controlled state Senate and signature by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott are now all that’s needed to

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