Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that a special election will be held on Nov. 4, in which Californians will vote on the “Election Rigging Response Act,” a ballot measure to implement a new partisan gerrymander of the state’s House map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The governor announced the election at a press conference on Thursday, which he dubbed “Liberation Day” in an apparent attempt to mirror President Donald Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement of the same name. Newsom told reporters after the conference the new gerrymandered map will be released in the next few days, and it aims to “completely neuter and neutralize” Texas’ mid-decade redistricting efforts — from which the GOP is likely to gain five House seats.
Multiple other California Democrats spoke at the conference including Sen. Alex Padilla, Sen. Adam Schiff, House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar and professor Sara Sadhwani, a Democratic member of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.
“We’re doing this in reaction to the president of the United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, ‘Find me five seats,’” Newsom said at the press conference. “We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear, district by district, across this country, not just in Texas, but in Missouri where [Vice President] JD Vance went just a week ago. In Indiana, in places like Ohio, in places like Florida. We need to stand up.”
Republicans are reportedly considering pursuing mid-decade redistricting to pick up seats in the midterms from other GOP-controlled states besides Texas — such as Florida, Indiana and Missouri. Ohio, in which Republicans also have full control over the governorship and legislature, must redraw its congressional map ahead of the 2026 election cycle.
Prior to Newsom’s press conference, the National Republican Congressional Committee labeled the 2028 hopeful’s event a “stunt” designed to consolidate “radical Democrat power.”
“Gavin Newsom’s latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power, silencing California voters, and propping up his pathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream,” NRCC Spokesman Christian Martinez wrote. “Newsom’s made it clear: he’ll shred California’s Constitution and trample over democracy — running a cynical, self-serving playbook where Californians are an afterthought and power is the only priority.”
California, unlike Texas and some other Republican states, is unable to hold special legislative sessions to redraw maps as its voters entrusted the task of redrawing the state’s House lines to its Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2010, via a ballot initiative. For this reason, California voters need to approve another ballot initiative in order to greenlight a new map mid-decade — something not required in the other aforementioned states.
Despite its current map being drawn by a commission, California still boasts an overwhelming Democratic House delegation, with Republicans representing only nine — 17% — of its 52 seats.
The news of the November special election comes the same day as the Registrar of Voters in Riverside County responded to inquiries from Republican California Rep. Ken Calvert who represents the 41st district in Southern California. Calvert asked about the cost of putting on a previously unscheduled special election this fall, and the workload that would come with both the shortened planning timeframe, and the reshuffling of district lines ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The Registrar responded to Calvert’s concerns with their estimate that putting on the election would cost somewhere between $15 and $16 million dollars, and doing so with roughly three months to plan would give the office a “significantly increased workload.”
The office also informed Calvert of some key actions they would have to carry out ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. District assignments would have to be reconfigured to ensure each voter is accurately placed in the new districts, the new boundaries would need to be updated in the election management system, all voting equipment hardware would have to be tested to represent new district data correctly and voters would have to be educated on their new districts through extensive public communication efforts.
Newsom told reporters after his press conference that his state’s legislature will introduce a number of bills in the coming week to create and fund the special election and maps, as well as reaffirm the independent redistricting commission to assume power in 2030.
In response to a question regarding Riverside County’s cost projection, Newsom said, “The state of California is going to fund that and that’s what the bill is all about. It is deeply disingenuous.”
“Wake up America. Wake up. You will not have a country if he rigs this election. You will have a president that will be running for a third term, mark my word,” Newsom told reporters. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I received in the mail a Trump 2028 ad from one of his biggest supporters. These guys are not screwing around.”
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