Democrats draw up plans to retaliate if Republicans gerrymander Texas — but they face legal hurdles

Democrats in America's two biggest blue states are hatching plans to respond in kind to a mid-decade move by Texas to draw a friendlier House map for Republicans

Democrats in America's two biggest blue states are hatching plans to respond in kind to a mid-decade move by Texas to draw a friendlier House map for Republicans.

Retaliation threats have come from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who lead states where Democrats control large legislative majorities. Two can play at this game, they say, vowing to similarly eliminate GOP-held seats in their states.

But that's easier said than done.

Democrats have legal hurdles to clear in California and New York, which have restricted partisan gerrymandering, which liberal advocates pushed in previous years in the name of good government. Texas has no such limits, so GOP Gov. Greg Abbott has called a special session to draw a new map.

California has an independent redistricting commission — a bipartisan panel tasked with drawing up fair maps for the Legislature to approve — to avoid partisan influence. Newsom is seeking to get around that on a temporary and targeted basis — but only if Texas enacts its GOP-favored map, which is aimed at giving Republicans up to five more seats in the U.S. House.