Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to take on Governor Gavin Newsom over gerrymandering in California
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has condemned gerrymandering as “truly evil” after current office holder Gavin Newsom unveiled his redistricting plan.
In retaliation against President Donald Trump’s push for aggressive partisan redistricting in Texas, Newsom said he aims to redraw California’s U.S. House maps before the 2026 midterm elections.
Now Schwarzenegger, the architect of California’s nonpartisan redistricting system, is preparing to campaign against Newsom’s partisan gerrymandering proposal.
“He calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that. He thinks it’s truly evil for politicians to take power from people,” Schwarzenegger spokesperson Daniel Ketchell told Politico on Monday.
“He’s opposed to what Texas is doing, and he’s opposed to the idea that California would race to the bottom to do the same thing.”
Newsom said Thursday that he was considering asking the state Legislature to place his proposition to alter the map on November’s Uniform District Election ballot.
“This is not going to be done in a back room,” Newsom told reporters. “It’s going to be given to the voters for their consideration in a very transparent way, so they know exactly what they’re doing.”
The move is seen as a response to Texas lawmakers’ plan to approve a new congressional map aimed at flipping five Democrat-held districts to Republican control.
The Legislature’s ongoing special session ground to a halt on Sunday after Texas Democrats fled from their state to Chicago and New York evening to block the redistricting vote.
On Monday, Newsom, a Democrat, told reporters that he is ready to fight “fire with fire.”
If the governor secures a two-thirds majority in the state Legislature to place his proposal on the ballot, it could derail a key legacy of Schwarzenegger’s seven-year tenure as California’s last GOP governor from 2003 to 2011.
Schwarzenegger is reportedly preparing to be the face of a “No” campaign, reuniting many of the forces that came together during his time in office to oppose Newsom’s measure if it appears on the ballot.
Charles Munger Jr, a GOP donor who funded the push to create the independent commission, wrote on X last month: “Any attempt to undermine the nonpartisan California Redistricting Commission will be strongly opposed in the courts and at the ballot box.”
Munger, the son of Warren Buffett’s business partner, was one of the California Republican Party’s leading funders during Schwarzenegger’s governorship.
The 78-year-old Hollywood star led the effort to curb gerrymandering in California, resulting in two successful ballot measures in 2008 and 2010.
That pair of constitutional amendments placed an independent commision, not a lawmaker, in charge of drawing California’s political map once per decade.
After leaving office, Schwarzenegger lobbied other states to adopt nonpartisan systems with mixed results in Michigan, Colorado, Virginia and Ohio.
He also filed an amicus brief when the U.S. Supreme Court took up a landmark case on gerrymandering in 2019, arguing that the tactic undermines democracy and voter trust.
