The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Gavin Newsom’s $250M Redistricting Power Grab

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Meanwhile, California faces skyrocketing gas and electricity prices, mass population flight, and crumbling infrastructure. Victor Davis Hanson breaks down how Newsom’s redistricting strategy mirrors Texas in name only and targets Republican incumbents on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “What Gavin wants to do is he’s targeting Republican congresswomen and men. And he thinks that he can redraw the districts and put two Republican incumbents in the same district. And then, one will either drop out or they’ll have to run against each other and one will win, and they will be diminished by half. He doesn’t care about the 40% of his own state that won’t have any congressional representation. That’s not on his plan.” 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1 👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273 👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com (0:00) California's Redistricting Effort (0:27) Comparison with Texas Redistricting (0:35) Critique of Newsom's Actions (3:08) California's Political Landscape (8:17) Newsom's Performance Art (8:31) Conclusion and Final Thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. California has been in the news recently because it's going to have an unusual redistricting effort. That means we're going to redraw the maps of our 52 congressional seats. And we're going to do that according to our governor because Texas has been doing that. And Gavin Usum is running for president in 2008, so he wants to show that he is on the cutting edge of Democratic opposition to Texas. But there's a problem. Texas doesn't have an independent commission.

Texas has a under-representation of Republicans in congressional seats. What Gavin Newsom is doing is very strange. He is undermining a independent commission. It's been dominated by the left, but he doesn't even trust it. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. California has been in the news recently because it's going to have an unusual redistricting effort. That means we're going to redraw the maps of our 52 congressional seats. And we're going to do that according to our governor because Texas has been doing that.

And Gavin Usum is running for president in 2008. So he wants to show that he is on the cutting edge of Democratic opposition to Texas. But there's a problem. Texas doesn't have an independent commission, not that they're really independent, but that in theory they are. They just gerrymander. And Texas has a underrepresentation of Republicans in congressional seats. What I mean by that, if you look at the aggregate vote in Texas for the president or for senators

or for the state legislature, and you get an aggregate Republican versus Democrat vote, and then you see how many seats they have, and does that percentage represent it? the majority, no, it doesn't in Texas. In fact, most red states, if the 50 states are ranked one to 50, do the number of congressional seats in this state represent the Republican or Democratic aggregate overall vote as adjudicated by either state legislature races or statewide races or the presidency or the senators? You can use different formulas, but they're pretty much the same that red states do not, not that they don't gerrymander, but they don't gerrymander as effectively. So that's why Texas is taking this action to get parity.

But what Gavin Newsom is doing is very strange. He is undermining a independent commission. It's been dominated by the left, but he doesn't even trust it. He's not calling it back into session necessarily. He's calling a special session with a predetermined map. created by Democrats to redistrict. And here's the problem. California, like most blue states such as Massachusetts

or Illinois and New York, they are already heavily weighed toward Democrats. Here in California, depending on what formula we use, about 38 to 40 percent of the state typically vote for a Republican ticket state or federal. And yet, if you look at their nine congressional seats, it's about 17%. So they're 20 to 22 percent underrepresented. So what Gavin Newsom is saying, I'm going to spend $250 million, and I'm going to rush through

the legislature dominated with supermajorities from my party, a bill to turn a proposition over to the people so they will vote to suspend the state. already gerrymanded plan and get an hyper one so that we are going to go from 17% of our congressional districts probably down to about eight and we'll have 8% even though the state votes 38 to 40% Republican. So the problem is he's a challenging an independent commission that he used to praise. B, he's taking an overrepresented Democratic congressional districts, and he's trying to even more over-represent them.

And he's trusting that the people will not mind spending a quarter of a billion dollars to have this rushed election before the next year's November, and then they will vote for it. And this will show that he is a fighter and on the cusp. But the national mood is against him, because as I said, most of the red states are underrepresented through gerrymanding and most of the blue states are overrepresented. What Gavin wants to do is he's targeting Republican Congress women and men and he thinks that he can redaw the districts and put two Republicans incumbent in the same district and then one will either drop out or they'll have to run against each other and one will win and they will be diminished by half. He doesn't

care about the 40% of his own state that won't have any congressional representation. That's not on his plan. This is all the act of commission. But what is Gavin doing about the state? We've had 12 million people leave the state the last 10 years. 12 million. These were people not on public assistance. These are the entrepreneurial upper middle class. They've gone. We have the highest electric rates in the country over 35. since a kilowatt hour. We're the highest except for Hawaii. We have the highest gas prices. And now we have this carbon fuel formula and this new inflation-adjusted gas tax. So we're going to have the highest gas taxes and the highest actual price of gasoline. And together they're going to go up to maybe

$6 a gallon. But that's not the end. He has driven out through hyper-regulation, and bullying and berating oil refineries, we're going to drive two main ones out, and we're not going to have very many left. And if that should happen, gas could go up to $7 or $8 a gallon. Is he talking about Pacific Palisades? It essentially hasn't been rebuilt. It's completely incenders.

Why? Because of California regulations, environmental, social equity, DEI, you name it, no zoning going on, a big fight that they want to take this beautiful Pacific Palisades historic neighborhood and have high density, low-income housing in many areas, etc., etc. Bottom line, here is Gavin Newsom using four-letter words, expletives, boasting that he's going to attack Trump by spending a quarter billion dollars to even make the notorious California congressional election map even more unfair, as replied.

to Texas, which is not fair now. They may be doing something extra ordinary, but they're trying to get their congressional districts to reflect their party breakdown and their state. And Gavin is doing this why he won't address gas. He won't address the flight of people. He won't address the highest taxes in the nation aggregate. He won't address electricity prices. And I just drove about 200 miles home today. I can tell you that if you get on the California freeways, such as they are, it's taking your life in their own house. They have been on chains essentially since the 1970s when the population was not 41 million, but about 17 million. So the population is doubled, and the infrastructure is the same, and Gavin Usum is doing what, he's doing another performance art, wiggling his head, saying the F word, the S word, trying to dare.

Trump to stop him all in performance art for his next presidential run. Final observation, what he's counting on is nobody looks at the price of electricity, the price of food, the price of housing, the price of gas on the infrastructure, crime rate, etc., in California. Because he, more than any other Californian, as a Bay Area City Council person, as a San Francisco mayor, as a lieutenant governor and as a governor has ruined this state. He took a natural paradise and he turned it into purgatory. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal.

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