Democrats aim to counter Texas GOP bill flipping five Democratic seats to Republican control in US Congress.California state lawmakers have commenced action on redrawn political maps aimed at giving Democrats five more seats in the US Congress, countering the partisan advantage President Donald Trump hopes to gain from a Republican redistricting plan in Texas.California Democrats, led by Governor Gavin Newsom, are pushing for fast-track passage of their redistricting effort in the Sacramento statehouse by Friday, just in time to place it on the ballot for a special election on November 4.Newsom, who enjoys a Democratic super-majority in both houses of the state legislature, ultimately seeks voter support for his plan. If it succeeds, it would neutralise a Trump-backed Texas bill designed to flip five Democratic seats to Republican control in the US House of Representatives.Republicans, including Trump, have openly acknowledged that the Texas effort is about boosting their political clout by helping to preserve the party’s slim House majority in the November 2026 midterm races. That election already is shaping up as closely fought.Democrats have characterised their bid to depart from the state’s usual independent, bipartisan redistricting process – adopted by voters in 2008 – as a temporary “emergency” strategy to combat what they see as extreme Republican moves to unfairly rig the system.“The decks are stacked against us, so what we need to do is fight back,” California Senator Lena Gonzalez, a joint author of the r …
