A top California Democrat who is expected to help steer the Golden State’s mid-decade redistricting plan through the state legislature was reportedly involved in creating a new district to launch his own congressional run.
Mike McGuire, the President pro tempore of the California State Senate, had one of the newly-configured districts drawn for him in return for his support for the redistricting effort, according a report published by KCRA on Monday. McGuire is term-limited from running for reelection in the state legislature and is rumored to be considering making a run for Congress in a new safe Democratic seat in 2026.
State Democrats led by California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a new gerrymandered map Friday that could end the careers of up to five House Republicans currently representing Californians in Washington. One of the GOP lawmakers targeted by Golden State Democrats is Republican California Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who has represented a deeply conservative district for over a decade.
LaMalfa’s rural district in the state’s far northeast corner along the Nevada and Oregon border was substantially reconfigured to take in parts of the Democratic-heavy wine country in Sonoma County and stretch further toward the Pacific coast. The California Republican could struggle to hold onto the seat assuming voters approve the new congressional map given the newly-drawn district’s voter registration advantage shifting nearly 30 points in favor of Democrats.
President Donald Trump won LaMalfa’s deep-red district by 25 percentage points last November. Vice President Kamala Harris would have defeated Trump by 12 percentage points in the newly-reconfigured district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
McGuire, who has served as the top Democrat in the state Senate since 2022, represents a northern California district that includes Sonoma County. He has defended California’s redistricting plans as “drawing a line in the sand to stop Texas and Trump from rigging the election.”
The web domain “mikemcguireforcongress.com” was registered on Aug. 11, but is currently blank.
LaMalfa has characterized the new congressional map as a “ridiculous gerrymander.”
“Anyone who knows anything about California should be outraged,” LaMalfa posted on the social media platform X on Friday.
The California Republican Party on Monday blasted McGuire’s reported role in remapping northern California to benefit his own career prospects.
“The corruption of California Democrats knows no bounds as they work to nullify California’s independent, bipartisan citizen’s redistricting commission to ‘Save Democracy™,’” the California GOP wrote on X.
Republican California Assemblyman Carl DeMaio filed a ballot initiative on Monday that would bar state legislators who vote in favor of new congressional maps from running for Congress for 10 years. DeMaio will need to secure 1 million signatures to get his citizens’ initiative on California voters’ ballots in November 2026.
“The state constitution already bans Independent Citizens’ Redistricting Commissioners from seeking elected office for 10 years – so if the politicians want to illegally seize back redistricting power from the citizens, it is only fitting that the ban against benefitting personally from those maps be imposed on them,” DeMaio said on Monday.
It is unclear if that initiative could stop McGuire from seeking a job promotion in California’s 1st congressional District.
California voters will decide whether to allow the hotly-contested congressional map to move forward during a ballot initiative this November. Though early polling suggests a majority of California residents oppose Newsom’s redistricting push, elected Democrats and deep-pocketed liberal donors are expected to aggressively whip public opinion in favor of new congressional maps.
“Let’s be clear – we’re here at this flashpoint because Donald Trump and Republican leaders are trying to rig the election,” McGuire’s office said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation sent post-publication. “These maps, submitted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, aren’t about any single legislator or Congressional seat, they’re about the future of our state, our country, and our democracy — and Trump’s attempt to steal the election.”
“The pro tem is focused on the job he has leading the Senate, and any speculation on who will run for these seats before voters even have a say is wildly premature and inappropriate,” McGuire’s office added in the statement.
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