FILE PHOTO: U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) takes questions from reporters at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 23, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) told MSNBC's Antonia Hylton on Thursday evening that congressional leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), need to step up and end the Trump-driven push for a mid-decade gerrymandering war.
In response to Texas Republicans proposing a map that would add more GOP voters to five Democratic districts, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is unveiling a plan that could knock out up to five Republican districts in retaliation, including Kiley's district along the state's eastern border with Nevada.
"I don't like what's going on in Texas or in any other state," said Kiley. "I really don't like the idea that this is going to be some sort of domino effect that cascades across the country, where we have total chaos and lines are just being drawn, redrawn all the time, severing the relationship between representatives and their constituents. So that's why I've introduced a bill to say no redrawing lines in the middle of the decade in any state. And it's also why I'm calling upon the speaker to create a bipartisan commission to do redistricting reform so that in time for the next Census in 2030, we've gotten rid of political gerrymandering all across the country."
"It seems, though, that Speaker Johnson is on Trump's side in this," said Hylton. "Have you been able to speak to the president? Because at the end of the day, Gavin Newsom has made it very clear that he's only doing this in reaction to what we're seeing in Texas, where Republicans there have moved ahead. But they're also saying they're going to try to put Beto O'Rourke behind bars. They're aggressively pursuing the Democrats who have fled the state there. I mean, tensions are ratcheting up on that side. And again, it began with Republicans taking this mid-decade step that their voters in that state did not ask them for. So at least Newsom is letting voters have a say in part of this process."
"Have you been able to talk to the president about this?" she repeated. "Because it seems like a fight that's only going to stop if Donald Trump says, okay, we're not going to go forward."
"Yeah, I haven't talked to the president," said Kiley. "I have talked to the speaker on multiple occasions. And I've been very clear that I think that he and the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, need to show some leadership here to step up and say enough is enough, that if we continue down this path, it's just going to be this arms race, this redistricting war, mutually assured destruction. It's going to be bad for voters. It's going to be bad for representation. It's certainly going to be bad for our country. And, you know, at the end of the day, the whole thing might be a wash anyway. So what is — what is really the point?"
"I think at the end of the day, we need to just put an end to this and get back to the issues that really matter to the American people," he concluded.
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