California Democrats are behind a new proposal to ban mid-decade redistricting and require every state to adopt a nonpartisan, independent redistricting commission to draw congressional maps.
The Redistricting Reform Act of 2025 would end gerrymandering and put a stop to the current redistricting war taking place across the country, said the bill’s authors, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose. It would prohibit mid-cycle redistricting, like what is happening in a few states around the country this year, unless ordered by a court.
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“We believe in a better way forward and so today we’re offering Republicans this off-ramp,” Padilla, a former California secretary of state, said during a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Sept. 18. “Let’s come together behind the Redistricting Reform Act of 2025, a commonsense solution to the partisan power grabs that we’re witnessing.”
Both the Texas and Missouri legislatures recently passed mid-cycle redistricting plans, but their actions are being challenged in court. Other red states like Indiana and Florida are considering similar actions meant to benefit Republicans in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
Meanwhile, California voters will decide in a special election in November on a proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional boundary lines to benefit Democrats, a gerrymandering effort they’ve touted as a counter to the Republican-led states.
Lofgren said she had been introducing similar legislation related to redistricting since 2005. In 2021, she said, a bill calling for independent redistricting passed the House when Democrats had control of the lower chamber, but it did not pass out of the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.
“It can’t just be one side that agrees to stop gerrymandering. It needs to be both. For the sake of democracy, we shouldn’t continue down this path. I would welcome the support of my Republican colleagues from California on this legislation,” Lofgren said.
Some Republican House members from Southern California, or their staff, raised questions about whether Democrats are being sincere.
“After these members of Congress just went behind closed doors to redraw their own districts and scheme to strip power away from the (California) Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, you’d have to be a fool to believe California Democrats are sincere about protecting voters from gerrymandering,” Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, said in a statement. “This is a blatant attempt to hide from a deeply unpopular proposition in California to take power away from the people and deny representative government.”
Jonathan Wilcox, a spokesperson for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Bonsall, was skeptical of Democrats’ motives while noting Padilla’s support for Proposition 50, the measure appearing on California’s Nov. 4 special election ballot asking voters to approve gerrymandered maps that will benefit Democrats.
“Since Sen. Padilla has already said Prop. 50 is his top priority, I’m surprised he’s made so much personal time for such insincere nonpartisanship,” Wilcox said.
Democrats have repeatedly said they would prefer to continue with congressional maps drawn by a nonpartisan, independent commission. But they back the plan — that will ultimately be up to the state’s voters in November — to redraw California’s congressional lines to favor Democrats because Texas and other red states have either moved forward with or are considering gerrymandering to benefit Republicans, at the urging of President Donald Trump.
California, Democrats have said, will “fight fire with fire.”
Under the gerrymandered maps that Democrats have proposed as part of Prop. 50, the party could potentially flip five congressional seats from red to blue.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, a Republican from Northern California who would be in danger of losing his seat if Prop. 50 is approved, introduced a similar bill last month to prohibit mid-decade redistricting across the country.
In a separate press conference on Thursday, Kiley said he supported the general parameters of the bill Democrats introduced — though he did not say specifically if he would sign on as a co-sponsor. Kiley said he asked House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, to convene a bipartisan group to address the issue of ending gerrymandering.
“I’m against what’s happened in Texas. I’m against what’s happening in any other state where they’re considering doing this (redistricting),” Kiley said. “You can have a lot of arguments about who really started this. … I don’t think it really matters. Both sides have been guilty of partisan gerrymandering.”
Keith Nagy, a spokesperson for Lofgren, said that while Kiley’s bill only proposes to ban mid-decade redistricting, the bill proposed by Democrats goes a step further by requiring independent redistricting commissions nationwide.
Nagy also said that if Prop. 50 passes in November, and the Redistricting Reform Act is enacted afterwards, it would not retroactively undo the new maps that voters approved under the California ballot measure. However, people would be able to file lawsuits if they believe the maps fail to comply with the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act.