64% of California voters want Newsom to keep his hands off congressional redistricting: Politico poll

A new poll has found that the majority of Californians do not want Governor Gavin Newsom to place redistricting abilities back into the hands of the state Legislature. This comes amid a redistricting effort in states nationwide, most notably in Texas.

The Citrin Center/Possibility Lab/Politico poll question stated, "In both 2008 and 2010, California voters passed initiatives to give an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission the power to draw the state’s legislative and congressional districts, in order to reduce the influence of politicians. Governor Newsom has suggested returning congressional line drawing authority back to the Legislature, citing concerns that redistricting efforts in Republican states would give them a partisan advantage."

Of those California registered voters polled, 64 percent said they "support keeping the independent redistricting commission," while 36 percent said they supported returning redistricting powers to the Legislature.

Those results were similarly reflected across all demographics polled, including male voters (69-31 percent), female voters (60-40 percent), non-college-educated voters (61-39 percent), college-educated voters (69-31 percent), Gen Z voters (62-38 percent) and Baby Boomer Generation voters (68-32 percent).

Jack Citrin, a partner on the poll and political science professor at UC Berkeley, said, "It’s not surprising, in the sense that California has voted twice for this independent review commission not all that long ago. And there’s a lot of mistrust and cynicism about politicians and the Legislature. That’s reflected here as well," per Politico.

The poll was conducted between July 28 and August 12 of 1445 California registered voters.

Newsom sent a letter to Trump on August 11 threatening to undertake redistricting efforts in his state in response to Texas’ redistricting efforts. "I am writing to ask you to call on the governor of Texas and other red states, who are acting on your request to draw new congressional maps through an unprecedented, mid-decade hyper-partisan gerrymander to rig the upcoming term elections, to stop those efforts."

"You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make. This attempt to rig congressional maps to hold onto power before a single vote is cast in the 2026 election is an affront to American democracy."