During Sunday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Life, Liberty & Levin,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) for his redistricting push.
Cruz accused Newsom of engaging in a ploy to promote his potential 2028 presidential candidacy.
“So this guy, Newsom, really is a fraud and a phony, isn’t he?” host Mark Levin said. “He’s doing this for the Democrats. He’s doing this for the hard-core leftists, but he is denying the franchise to millions and millions of Californians, isn’t he?”
“Well, Gavin Newsom is dishonest and he is a hypocrite, and if you look across the country, virtually all of the most egregious partisan gerrymanders in the country are perpetrated by Democrats. California right now, today, 58% of California votes Democrat. The current congressional delegation in California is 43 Democrats and nine Republicans. That is 83% Democrat right now. So 58% votes Democrat, they get 83% of the delegation. How about Illinois? Illinois 54% of Illinois votes Democrat. Their congressional delegation is 14 Democrats and just three Republicans. That’s 82%, 54% of the state gets 82% of the delegation. How about Massachusetts? Massachusetts actually says to California and Illinois, sit down, hold my beer. Massachusetts, about 35% of the state votes Republican. They get zero congressional representation. There are nine congressional seats in Massachusetts. All nine are drawn to elect Democrats. It is nine to zero, 100% Democrat.”
“Now, how about Texas?” he continued. “Texas right now, about 56% of the state votes Republican. The current breakdown is 24 Republicans, 14 Democrats. That’s 63%, so 56% of the state is electing 63% of the delegation. The new map that is drawn to elect five more Republicans is going to take Texas from 63% to 76%. Seventy-six percent is still less than California, it is less than Illinois, it is less than Massachusetts, it is less than Connecticut, it is less than Maryland, it is less than the egregious partisan gerrymanderers. And what does Gavin Newsom say? Well, 83% is not enough. We want to basically obliterate the 40-some-odd percent of Californians who vote Republican — we want to take away their ability to elect any Republicans to Congress.”
Cruz added, “I agree with you, Mark, if California does this, Texas ought to go back. We can redraw our map to elect all Republicans. If they’re going to do that, Gavin Newsom is telling you, he doesn’t care about democracy. He cares about Democrats being in power. If they’re going to do that, we ought to press back, and because the Democrats have been so abusive on this, if Newsom wants to start this arms race, there are a bunch of other Republican states that can redraw their maps, and at the end of the day, we would see a significant increase between 12 and 14 new Republicans in the House if every state starts doing this. So Newsom ought to be really careful about the fights he’s picking, although, to be honest, he doesn’t care. What he’s really doing is auditioning for the left-wing socialist and Israel-hating lunatics in the Democratic Party because he wants to be president in ’28, and for him, for Gavin Newsom, this is all about presidential politics in ’28.”
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