Newsom says 'rules of the game have changed' for Democrats pushing back on Trump

WASHINGTON, DC: California Governor Gavin Newsom said that Democrats can no longer afford to “play by the old rules” in the face of what he called President Donald Trump’s coordinated effort to tilt next year’s congressional elections.

During an interview on NBC's ‘Meet the Press’, released on Sunday, November 2, Newsom expressed confidence that California voters will approve 'Proposition 50', a controversial ballot measure that would allow the state to redraw congressional maps on a partisan basis ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“I’m deeply confident this measure will pass,” Newsom said. 

Newsom says Trump is ‘not screwing around’

Newsom did not mince his words in describing Trump’s alleged strategy, warning that Democrats should underestimate him at their own peril.

“He’s not screwing around. He’s changing the rules. He’s rigging the game because he knows he’ll lose if all things are equal. He did not expect California to fight fire with fire,” Newsom said. 

The California governor accused the president of using mid-decade redistricting in Republican-led states to secure lasting control of Congress.

“He’s doing it because he can and because we’ve let him in the past. This time, California isn’t sitting back,” Newsom added.

'Proposition 50', he said, is a direct countermeasure to the redistricting move recently passed in Texas, where the GOP-controlled Legislature reportedly redrew congressional districts to give Republicans as many as five additional House seats in 2026.

“That Texas map was the final straw,” Newsom said.

“You can’t have one side rewriting the rules mid-decade while the other side clings to a sense of fairness that no longer exists in modern politics,” the politician stated.

Newsom reflects on Kamala Harris backing California's redistricting measure 

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who was the Democratic nominee for president in 2024, endorsed California’s redistricting initiative on Thursday, posting on X that she voted yes on the measure “because we cannot let anyone silence the will of the people.”

Newsom said that he welcomed Harris’s support. 

“Kamala understands what’s at stake. This isn’t just about California’s map, it’s about democracy itself. If we don’t respond strategically, we’ll wake up one morning and realize the House is gone for a decade,” he explained.

Trump, meanwhile, has reportedly openly encouraged Republican-led states to follow Texas’s lead since July, even calling an Indiana GOP meeting in October to press for similar mid-decade redistricting.

Vice President JD Vance has also reportedly visited Indiana twice to boost the campaign. 

“Trump knows exactly what he’s doing,” Newsom said. “He’s been very public about it, very proud of it. He wants to redraw the country in his image. We’re saying, ‘Not this time.’”

Newsom says ‘the rules of the game have changed’

Asked whether Democrats should still embrace former first lady Michelle Obama’s famous motto, “When they go low, we go high,”  Newsom paused before offering a candid answer.

“I would love to go back to that,” he said, “but politics has changed. The world has changed. The rules of the game have changed.”

The governor added that while Democrats “want to go back to some semblance of normalcy,” the political landscape under Trump’s presidency demands a new approach.

“You have to deal with the crisis at hand,” he said.

"It has been just 10 to 11 months of this presidency. We have three more years’ time to batten down the hatches, and it’s time for us to change if we want things to change," he continued.

"That’s why our communication strategy has shifted. That’s why Prop 50 has shifted the conversation here in California," Newsom added.

He ended with, “I think we’ll shift the debate going into 2026 as a consequence of our success, and I think we, as a party, have become more unified and I think more aligned on what’s at stake.”