Lofgren, the chair of California’s 43-member Democratic delegation, consulted in June with a trusted data expert who dismissed it as absurd — a foolhardy end-run around the state’s popular redistricting panel with no guarantee of yielding enough blue seats to fully offset Texas.

California has landed its counterpunch. The national tug-of-war over redistricting and voters in the 2026 midterm elections shifts once again back to Texas, where it all started. California lawmakers voted mostly along party lines Thursday to approve legislation calling for a special election in November to approve a redrawn congressional map designed to help Democrats win five more U.