WASHINGTON (TNND) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his state is moving forward with drawing new congressional maps in a push to balance out a redistricting effort in Texas to draw five more favorable districts for Republicans in an intensifying national battle for control of Congress in the 2026 midterms.

Newsom said in a post on social media that the state’s heavily Democratic legislature will be redrawing maps to “end the Trump presidency” and allow the party to take control of the House back from Republicans.

"DONALD 'TACO' TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, 'MISSED' THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE 'BEAUTIFUL MAPS,' THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!)," Newsom wrote Tuesday night in a post mocking the president’s writing style on social media.

The high-profile governor and widely speculated 2028 presidential candidate has been one of the most outspoken critics Texas redrawing its maps and told Trump in a letter on Monday that his state would counter.

“If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states,” Newsom wrote in the letter. “But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.”

Congressional maps have historically been redrawn every 10 years after the census to distribute power equally based on population. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to call a special session for his state legislature to draw new maps, which came after a request from President Donald Trump, has upended the process into a growing fight over House district maps.

A nationwide battle over redistricting has played out in recent weeks amid Texas Republicans’ efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps to favor their party in 2026. State Democrats have fled Texas for weeks to deny Republicans the quorum needed to approve the new maps, but it’s unclear how long the protest will be able to last and if they can ultimately stop them from going into effect.

Newsom is planning to move forward with trying to get a measure on the ballot in a special election this fall that would let the state’s Democratic-dominated legislature draw new maps to counter gains from Texas Republicans’ own plans to redraw lines to favor their party in 2026.

Californians will have to approve of the measure allowing the lawmakers to redraw the lines instead of the state’s bipartisan commission. His office has said the ballot measure would include language reaffirming the state’s commitment to the independent commission even as it would temporarily dump maps drawn in 2020.

Newsom’s push is also likely to be met with fierce resistance from the state’s Republicans and former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who was a major advocate of the commission and has reportedly threatened to campaign against it.

“They have both legal challenges with the fact that they have an initiative commission process, as well as political challenges,” said Chris Warshaw, political science professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. “It's going to be a tall order for politicians in California to try to convince the public that that this is a moment that merits some sort of retaliation against Texas or balancing out of Texas. I don’t think we know how it's going to go.”

California Democrats are expected to release new map proposals later this week that are anticipated to target at least five of the state’s Republican House members to balance out the expected pick-ups when Texas’ new map is approved. Making the change would boost Democrats’ advantage in California to 48-4, wiping away districts currently held by nine Republicans.

While California is leading the charge in the Democratic tit-for-tat in redistricting, it’s unclear whether it will stop there. New York’s governor has backed the idea of dumping the state’s own commission, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has left all options on the table and national Democratic leaders have said the party should be prepared to “fight fire with fire.”

There are also some proposals in other GOP-led states to continue the mid-decade redistricting push, most notably in Florida, where its state House speaker said the chamber would take up redistricting this fall through a special committee. Lawmakers in Ohio are required to redraw their districts and talks are also underway in Missouri, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

“It's just not clear where this ends, and why would we think this will end this year?” Warshaw said. “Where this really matters is in 2028 and 2030 where there's likely to be more balanced national environments between the parties Once this genie is out of the bottle, who knows what's going to happen?”

Some House Republicans who represent blue states have pushed back against Texas’ redistricting plans and advocated against their own states doing the same. Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and Kevin Kiley of California are introducing legislation that would impose federal limits on partisan gerrymandering as their seats are under threat in response to Texas.

But the legislation is highly unlikely to be brought up for a full vote with the August recess and Republicans have historically been opposed to federal limits on drawing districts.