Schwarzenegger taunts Newsom with message targeting Dem redistricting push

"I'm getting ready for the gerrymandering battle," Schwarzenegger wrote in a social media post Friday, which included a photo of the former professional bodybuilding champion lifting weights.

Newsom on Thursday teamed up in Los Angeles with congressional Democrats and legislative leaders in the heavily blue state to unveil their redistricting playbook.

"Today is liberation day in the state of California," Newsom said. "Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back."

Newsom vowed to "meet fire with fire" with his push for a rare - but not unheard of - mid-decade redistricting.

Trump and his political team are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats stormed back to grab the House majority in the 2018 midterms. 

The governor is pushing to hold a special election this year to get voter approval to undo the constitutional amendments that created the nonpartisan redistricting commission. 

A two-thirds majority vote in the Democrat-dominated California legislature as early as next week would be needed to hold the referendum. Democratic Party leaders are confident they'll have the votes to push the constitutional amendment and the new proposed congressional maps through the legislature.

"Here we are in open and plain sight before one vote is cast in the 2026 midterm election, and here [Trump] is once again trying to rig the system," Newsom charged.

Newsom said his plan is "not complicated. We're doing this in reaction to a president of the United States that called a sitting governor in the state of Texas and said, 'Find me five seats.' We're doing it in reaction to that act."

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said "Newsom's made it clear: he'll shred California's Constitution and trample over democracy - running a cynical, self-serving playbook where Californians are an afterthought, and power is the only priority."

But Newsom defended his actions, saying "we're working through a very transparent, temporary and public process. We're putting the maps on the ballot and putting the power to the people."

Thursday's appearance by Newsom, considered a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, also served as a fundraising kickoff to raise massive amounts of campaign cash needed to sell the redistricting push statewide in California. 

The nonpartisan redistricting commission, created over 15 years ago, remains popular among most Californians, according to public opinion polling.

That's why Newsom and California Democratic lawmakers are promising not to scrap the commission entirely, but rather replace it temporarily by the legislature for the next three election cycles.

"We will affirm our commitment to the state independent redistricting after the 2030 census, but we are asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting," Newsom said.

Their efforts are opposed by a number of people supportive of the nonpartisan commission.

Among the most visible members is likely to be Schwarzenegger.

"He calls gerrymandering evil, and he means that. He thinks it's truly evil for politicians to take power from people," Schwarzenegger spokesperson Daniel Ketchell told Politico earlier this month.

"He's opposed to what Texas is doing, and he's opposed to the idea that California would race to the bottom to do the same thing."

Schwarzenegger, during his tenure as governor, had a starring role in the passage of constitutional amendments in California in 2008 and 2010 that took the power to draw state legislative and congressional districts away from politicians and placed it in the hands of an independent commission.

"Most people don't really think about an independent commission much, one way or another. And that's both an opportunity and a challenge for Newsom," Jack Pitney, an American politics professor at California's Claremont McKenna College, told Fox News.

"It's going to take a lot of effort and money to energize Democrats and motivate them to show up at the polls," Pitney said, adding Newsom's effort "is all about motivating people who don't like Trump."

Fox News' Lee Ross contributed to this report