Gov. Newsom Warns California Will Retaliate If Texas Eliminates Dem Seats In Redistricting: 'The 2026 Election Is Being Rigged'

California Governor Gavin Newsom warned his administration will retaliate against Republicans if Texas moves forward with a redistricting initiative that eliminates five Democratic seats.

"Donald Trump asks for 5 seats and Greg Abbott automatically bends the knee. The 2026 election is being rigged. California won't sit back and watch this happen," Newsom said in a social media post. Comments of the kind have also been made by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, as well as lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elisa Slotkin.

The message comes after Texas Republicans released the first draft of the state's congressional map on Wednesday. Concretely, the map targets members in Austin, Dallas and Houston metro areas and in South Texas, The Texas Tribune noted.

State Democrats are reportedly fundraising to face potential fines if they leave the state to block the initiative. The outlet detailed on Tuesday that, should lawmakers leave the state to prevent the Legislature from having a quorum to function, there would be donors willing to bankroll the effort.

The outlet noted that lawmakers would face a daily $500 fine, as well as the threat of arrest. They would also need to overcome the fact that Texas House rules forbid them from using campaign coffers to pay fines, but people involved in the strategy said there is already a strategy in place. About $1 million a month would be needed to finance the move.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett said that, since there are minimal limits on external income, lawmakers can just accept donations as another salary. She added that it might not even come to that. "I think that the first step would be to make sure that there are attorneys on deck to actually challenge the legality of these rules," Crockett said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, on his end, called for the arrest of Democrats leaving the state and offered his office to help "hunting down and compelling the attendance of anyone who abandons their office."

Democrats are using other tools at their disposal to fight against the move. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has begun deploying tens of thousands of advocates to fight against redistricting efforts.