California legislators pass redistricting plans to put a Democratic-drawn map before voters

“The crisis started in a Republican state. Texas lit a match and California is simply leveling the playing field instead of waiting until [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott and Trump burn our own house down,” Sade Elhawary, a Democratic assembly member from Los Angeles, said during Thursday’s debate, before criticizing her Republican colleagues for supporting “Trump-mandering and Trump-pandering.”

But Republicans have been strident in their pushback, too.

James Gallagher, the Republican leader in the state Assembly, said Thursday during the debate over the bill that while Democrats may have the power to move forward with their plan, they’ll be pouring fuel on the nation’s political fires if they do.

“You move forward fighting fire with fire, what happens? You burn it all down,” he said.

“The people’s right to representation is exactly what will be sacrificed when we continue down this road, when after you do it, Missouri does it, or Indiana does it. Colorado is talking about doing it. At the end of that, the parties will determine who represents and the people will be powerless to elect their own representatives,” Gallagher continued.

Evoking the Bible, he went on to call on Republicans and Democrats to “turn the other cheek” and disarm in California while calling on Texas Republicans to follow suit.

“Our democracy will persist as long as we fight back. And if there’s one weakness that we have right now in our republic, it’s that legislators are not standing up to executives of their own party,” he added.