Newsom calls special election to authorize California countermove…

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called for a special election to authorize state redistricting, following through on his threat to redraw maps to counter Texas Republicans' redistricting plan that could add five GOP seats and bolster their control of the U.S. House.
  
  
• State Rep. Gene Wu (D), chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said he and the other quorum-breaking Democrats will return to Austin once California introduces its redistricting maps to “neutralize” the Texas plan. 

…as feds conduct immigration raid directly outside

• Masked federal agents made arrests outside Newsom’s press conference as he announced plans to redraw the state’s congressional map in response to Texas’ redistricting. "Wake up, America. This is a serious moment," Newsom said.

From an immigration raid outside Gov. Newsom’s press conference to California’s bold counter-moves to redraw maps, our reporters are following every detail of this redistricting story. Your membership fuels reporting that no one else is covering — upgrade to support our work.

Texas GOP redistricting plan courts Latino voters while cutting their growing political power

• Texas Republicans are rolling out a new congressional map they say “empowers” Latino voters — but the lines tell a different story. It's a decades-old GOP strategy to chase new votes while cutting communities out of real power.
  
  
• “Only six members of the Texas delegation are Latino — about 17%,” Eric Holguin, Texas State Director of UnidosUS, told Democracy Docket. “Texas is 40% Latino so there’s a big disparity between who we are and who represents us.”

Victory for Louisiana voters

• The 5th Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling that struck down Louisiana’s state House and Senate maps for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by “packing” and “cracking” Black communities.

Battle over election deniers joining Georgia county board continues

• The Fulton County Board of Commissioners appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court after a lower court ordered the board to appoint two prominent election deniers to the county’s Board of Elections.

Alabama appeals order requiring two Black-majority districts through 2030

• Alabama filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court today, challenging a district court order that requires the state to maintain its two Black-majority districts through 2030 and prohibits the enactment of new maps before then.
  
  
• This appeal follows Alabama’s earlier challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court to a three-judge panel’s ruling that the state’s 2023 congressional map violated both Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment. That appeal remains pending, with statements due to SCOTUS by September 4.

Coming up tomorrow

• There's a hearing on the NAACP's motion seeking to block Trump's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education through layoffs and cancellation of grants.
  
  
• A hearing is scheduled in the Fulton County Georgia GOP’s motion to hold the county commission in contempt for “ignoring” the court’s order to appoint two election deniers to the elections board.