Gov. Gavin Newsom has been the public face of California Democrats’ plan to gerrymander the state, but perhaps no politician is as instrumental behind the scenes as Silicon Valley Rep. Zoe Lofgren.
The veteran Democrat, who represents part of San Jose and a swath of central California, chairs the state’s Democratic congressional delegation. That group — not Newsom’s office, nor state lawmakers tasked with approving the plan this week — was responsible for crafting the new, politically slanted maps that voters likely will consider in November.
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And Lofgren was at the helm of that process this summer, much of which unfolded behind a curtain of secrecy, in response to a ploy by Texas Republicans to re-draw political districts and give their party a boost in the 2026 Congressional midterm elections.
“She’s brilliant,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents a neighboring district in Silicon Valley.
Newsom has taken the brunt of the credit — and the criticism — over the redistricting plan. The governor himself wasn’t involved in the map-writing process, Lofgren said. As the Democratic delegation designed political maps to benefit their own party, the veteran congresswoman huddled with lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas.
“We never went over the maps with the governor,” Lofgren told Bay Area News Group.
A spokesperson for the governor didn’t respond to requests for comment, but did not dispute her role.
As the congressional delegation’s leader, Lofgren and her co-chiefs brought in political data expert Paul Mitchell to craft the new maps. They have been drawn to add five more Democrats representing California in Congress, and if all goes to plan, they’ll become members of the delegation that Lofgren leads. She said she spoke personally via calls, Zooms or texts with each of the roughly 40 members of delegation to get the plan across the finish line.
Earlier this month, Lofgren announced that every single House Democrat in California supported the plan, including representatives whose districts would become more competitive in the proposed maps.
That’s a testimonial to her three decades of experience in Congress and a leadership style rooted in respect, Lofgren’s Democratic allies said.
The daughter of a truck driver, Lofgren, 77, graduated from Stanford and helped a House committee draft the charges against President Richard Nixon during Watergate in 1974. She then worked as an immigration attorney and as a staffer for former Democratic Rep. Don Edwards and won his seat when he retired in 1994. Lofgren has held high-profile roles before; she participated in both of the impeachments against President Donald Trump during his first term and was a member of the House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol.
“She cares about every person’s opinion, she never violates people’s trust and she cares ultimately about what’s good for the state of California and the country,” Khanna said.
Republicans, on the other hand, have characterized the Democratic redistricting ploy as shady and corrupt. They’ve already challenged it in the courts and vowed to campaign against a November ballot measure if needed.
Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley, who represents much of Eastern California, stands to have his district cleaved and redesigned with a plurality of Democratic voters. Like many other GOP members, however, he has mostly focused his ire on Newsom.
“Make no mistake, I will win reelection to the House regardless of Newsom’s attempt to gerrymander my district,” he said Saturday on X. “But I fully expect that the beautiful 3rd District will remain exactly as it is. We will defeat Newsom’s sham initiative and vindicate the will of California voters.”
Lofgren’s response?
“The only reason we’re doing this is because they’re trying to rig the next election,” she said of Republicans. “They know they’re going to lose if they don’t rig this system. And if we can win in the midterms, we will be able to block some of the crazy bad things that Trump is achieving these days. So that’s really important for the public and for our state.”
That’s the Democratic Party line, shared nearly unanimously by Newsom and rank-and-file state lawmakers who’ve said repeatedly that they don’t want to replace the state’s independently-drawn districts unless absolutely necessary. Bills expected to get the OK from state Democrats in the Legislature on Thursday would reportedly change district lines only if other states do so first. Democrats have also taken pains to illustrate that, unlike the Texans, they plan to ask California voters to sign off on the proposed maps.
Lofgren credits members of her delegation for getting on board — even the Democrats who stand to lose ground in their districts if the new maps pass. In some instances, funneling Democratic voters into GOP-held districts means making some Democrat-held seats more competitive. For instance, Lofgren noted that Long Beach Rep. Robert Garcia would lose 12% of the Democratic voters in his district. A spokesperson for Garcia did not respond to requests for comment.
Lofgren herself would see the southern tip of her district expanded into the current territory of Republican Rep. David Valadao. That’s a swing district that Democrats have targeted relentlessly, but without recent success. A spokesperson for Valadao also did not respond to a comment request. The proposed map would leave the partisan makeup of Lofgren’s district unchanged but would paint Valadao’s slightly more blue.
In other instances, Democrats would lose parts of their district that they’ve long represented. For example, Khanna would no longer represent part of Fremont, the Pennsylvania-born representative’s adopted hometown.
“I lived there many years,” he said. “But in the bigger scheme of things, it’s not a significant change.”
Some members were probably “easier to convince than others,” said Bill James, chair of the Santa Clara County Democratic Party.
“I don’t think it’s an easy case,” he said of Lofgren’s task this summer. “I do think its a compelling case.”