At the bottom of the lands of defeat, the Democrats have sought the soul about what went wrong last November, played with more than a thousand thoughts and desperately chosen for a strategy to restart their stagnant party.
In the midst of the noise, the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has recently defended an unlikely game plan: forgetting the high road, fighting fire with fire and hugging the tactics that Democrats with a virtue mentality have denounced for a long time.
Could the dark art of political Gerrymandering be what saves the democracy of Trump's increasingly authoritarian impulses? That is essentially the Pitch Newsom is making California voters with their new and bold special electoral campaign.
While Texas Democrats seek to block a redistribution thrust of districts led by Republicans and Trump's muscles to consolidate the power where you can, Newsom wants to draw again the districts of the California Congress to favor the Democrats.
Its objective: counteract Trump's impulse for more seats in the Republican house with a game of its own power.
It is a bet that pushes the limits that will undoubtedly overvalue the Newsom political star. The glory of the long game could be even more great, but only if it achieves it. A voting flop would be brutal for both Newsom and his party.
The charismatic governor of California is qualified as his position in 2026 and has not hidden his presidential ambitions of 2028.
But the distinctive aroma of its native status will be difficult to completely deploy in parts of the country where California is synonymous with Lony left -handed, regulation that kills business and a crisis of lack of housing out of control. Not to say anything about Newsom's unfortunate dinner in an Elite Napa restaurant in violation of COVID-19 protocols, a false step that energized a failed retirement attempt and still pursues the national reputation of the governor.
The Redistribution Gambit of Districts is the type of great work that could redefine how voters from all over the country see Newsom.
The strategy could be a blessing for Newsom ambitions 2028 during a time when Democrats are hungry for leaders, said Democratic strategist Steven Maviglio. But it is also a massive dice roll for both Newsom and for the state it leads.
“It's a great policy for him if this happens,” said Maviglio. “If he fails, he is dead in the water.”
The forward path, which could determine the control of the congress in 2026, is not a straight shot.
The “Law of Response of Choice”, as Newsom has appointed its voting measure, would temporarily discard the districts of the congress promulgated by the voters approved by the State. Independent Distriction Redistribution Commission.
According to the proposal, the Democrats could collect five seats currently in the hands of the Republicans while reinforcing vulnerable Democratic holders, Adam Gray, Josh Harder, George Whitesides, Derek Tran and Dave Min, which would save millions of dollars to the party in expensive racing fights.
But first the state legislature led by Democrat must vote to place the measure on the electoral ballot of November 4 and then must be approved by the voters.
If approved, the initiative would have a “triggering”, which means that the redibrated map would not enter into force unless Texas or other state led by the Republican Party advanced with its own Gerrymandering effort.
“I think what Governor Newsom and other Democrats are doing here is exactly the right thing to do,” said the president of the National Democratic Committee Ken Martin.
“We are not bringing a pencil to a knife fight. We are going to take a bazuca to a knife fight, right? This is not your grandfather's Democratic Party,” Martin said, and added that they should not be the only ones who play for a set of rules that no longer exist.
For the Democrats such as the representative Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), who appeared with Newsom to begin the effort, there are “a certain anguish” to temporarily establish their commitment to the redistribution of independent districts. But she and others had clear eyes about the need to stop a president “willing to manipulate the elections in the middle of the river,” he said.
Friedman said he was listening to overwhelmingly positive reactions to the proposal of all types of democratic groups on the field.
“The answer I get is: 'Finally, we are fighting. We have a way to defend that tangible,” Friedman said.
Even so, despite the record of the State Democratic voters, the victory for the measure of the difficult ballot will not be assured. California voters have gathered twice for the redistribution of independent districts at the polls in the last two decades and many can fight to abandon those beliefs.
TO Central Citrine Possession Laboratory Survey found that voters prefer to maintain an independent panel in their place to draw lines of the district by a margin of almost two to one, and that the redistribution of independent districts is widely popular in the state.
(Newsom's The press office argued That the survey was poorly written, since he asked about getting rid of the independent commission completely and permanently that he returned the power of the line to legislators, instead of simply discarding his work for several cycles until the independent commission then bring new lines).
However, California voters should not expect to see a special electoral campaign focused on the minutiae to reconfigure the districts of the State Congress.
While many opponents will probably attack change as a reduction in the will of California voters, who overwhelmingly supported the elimination of politics outside the district redistribution process, Bank in Newsom broadcasting the campaign as a referendum on Trump and their tortuous effort to keep Republicans in Congress control.
Newsom used a similar strategy when he demolished the retirement campaign led by the Republicans against him in 2021, which the governor portrayed as a battle of “life and death” against “Trumpism” and anti -cacamic and anti -abortion activists of the extreme right. Among the California Democratic electorate, that message turned out to be extremely effective.
“Wake Up, America,” said Newsom on Thursday in a Los Angeles rally that launched the campaign for the redistribution measure of districts. “It awakens what Donald Trump is doing. He awakens his assault. He arouses the assault on institutions, knowledge and history. He awakens his war against science, public health, his war against the American people.”
Kevin Liao, a Democratic strategist who has worked on national and state campaigns, said his political group chats based in DC and California had been exploiting in recent days with texts about the moment Newsom was creating for himself.
Much of the Liao Group Chat fodder has involved the production of the Newsom digital team, which has raised the trolling to an art form in its official @GOVPRESSEFFICE account at the social media site X.
The missives have greatly imitated the president's own social networks, with hyperbole, small insults and a great dependence on the “Lock Lock” key.
“Donald is over, he is no longer 'hot'. First, the hands (so small) and now me, Gavin C. Newsom, I have removed his 'step'”, reads one of the publications last week, which the governor himself is published again.
Some messages have also ended with the Newsom initials (a riff about Trump's “DJT” signature and have been sprayed in Trump's call returns, such as the phrase “Liberation Day” or a cover of Time Motted magazine with Newsom's smiling while smiling. The account has obtained 150,000 new followers since the beginning of the month.
Shortly after Trump assumed the position in January, Newsom walked a fine line between criticizing the president and his policies and being more diplomatic, especially after California forest fires, hoping to appeal to any appearance of compassion and presidential responsibility that Trump possessed.
Newsom had spent the first months of the new administration trying to remodel California-Vs.-Trump that dominated the president's first mandate and moved away from the previous “resistance” brand of his party.
These conciliatory oberturas coincided with Newsom's hug of a more ecumenical position, organizing magician leaders in their podcast and taking a position on the participation of transgender athletes in women's sports that contradicted democratic orthodoxy.
Newsom insisted that he participated in those conversations to better understand the political opinions that diverged his, especially after Trump's victory in November. However, there was the unmistakable smell of an ambitious politician who tried to expand his national attraction by moving away from his reputation as a liberal of the west coast.
Newsom's reluctance to re -elbet the Trump resistance mantle ended after the president sent Troops from the California National Guard to Los Angeles in the midst of immigration sweeps and subsequent protests in June. These actions revealed revenge without Trump's control and the abject abject of morality and honor, said Newsom.
Lately, Newsom has defended the youthful tone of the publications of its press assistants mocking Trump's own gifts in all CAP, and questioned why critics would excore their parody and not expressions of the president's deranged social networks.
“If you have problems with what I am taking out, surely you should have concerns about what you are presenting as president,” said Newsom last week. “Then, to the extent that he has caught some attention, I am pleased.”
In an economy of attention deficit where highlight is half of the battle, the posts shine arrogance without complexes. And they make it clear that Newsom is in the joke.
“For a certain set of people who operated under the old rules, this could be seen as, 'Wow, this is really extravagant.' But I think they are calculating that the Democrats love the people who are going to play under this new set of rules that Trump has established,” said Liao.
At a time when the Democratic Party is still busy with recriminations after people and the approach to vision of height, Newsom has emerged from the swamp with something similar to a plan.
And he is betting home for the will of his deep blue state to fight fire with fire.
The writers of the Times Sema Mehta and Laura Nelson staff contributed to this report.
