California lawmakers passed a legislative package Thursday advancing a partisan redistricting plan aimed at winning Democrats up to five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 elections, the latest step in a tit-for-tat gerrymandering battle after Texas Republicans advanced their own redrawn map to pad their House majority by the same number of seats at President Donald Trump's urging.

Lawmakers voted mostly along party lines after hours of debate. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who pushed for the high-stakes effort to counter Texas, is expected to sign the legislation later Thursday. But that won't make the map final. It still needs approval from voters in a special election scheduled for November.

"We don't want this fight and we didn't choose this fight, but with our democracy on the line,

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