Newsom unveiled a plan to redraw the map of California’s congressional districts to potentially win the Democratic Party five more seats in the House of Representatives. This was an effort to mirror Texas’s plan, backed by President Donald Trump, also to redraw its map to win five more seats for the Republican Party. 

Cruz is referring to the 43 Democratic House members representing California versus the nine Republican members. Meanwhile, Texas currently has 24 Republican House members and 14 Democrats.

This process of redrawing maps in an extreme fashion to favor one political party is known as gerrymandering.

California is the second most gerrymandered state nationwide. Democrats won 59% of the presidential vote in 2024, leaving a 24-point gap between their overall state partisan advantage and their advantage in House seats. 

Newsom responded to Cruz by pointing out a typo in Cruz’s original tweet that described the Democratic advantage as 51-0, when there are 52 total House members from California.

“Please learn math,” Newsom wrote.

“Like all charlatans, @GavinNewsom resorts to insults & distractions to hide the truth,” Cruz responded.

CALIFORNIA VOTERS REJECT OVERTURNING INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMMISSION: POLL

“Gavin, 2 Qs: 1) why do the 38% of CA Republicans deserve ZERO representation? 2) if CA goes to 100%, why shouldn’t TX?”

Newsom called for a special election on Nov. 4 to allow Californians to vote on the new maps.