Press Release: 8/21/2025

California Meets, Texas Fails to Meet Common Cause’s Redistricting Fairness Criteria

 



Published: Aug 20, 2025



Common Cause released its evaluation of the proposed mid-decade congressional redistricting process in Texas and California against its established fairness criteria.








MEDIA CONTACT



Katie Scally



Communications Director 

kscally@commoncause.org



Today, Common Cause, the national redistricting leader, released its evaluation of the proposed mid-decade congressional redistricting process in Texas and California against its established fairness criteria. The organization found California meets its criteria, while Texas fails to meet each of the six fairness standards.  



Texas initially imposed mid-decade partisan maps to tilt the vote in Republican’s favor ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, and California implemented a similar effort to counterbalance this move. In response, Common Cause launched its six fairness criteria to evaluate any proposed maps and protect fair representation for the people should other states engage in mid-decade redistricting.  



Statement of Common Cause President & CEO Virginia Kase Solomón 



“Mid-decade redistricting wars are being waged at the behest of a power-hungry president in pursuit of unilateral control of our nation. We created the six fairness criteria so that as this war rages on, we have a way to protect fair representation for the voters. Our fairness criteria empower the people to navigate this unprecedented time in our country, and we expect all politicians to meet this standard or be met with Common Cause’s fierce opposition.” 



Statement of Common Cause’s California Director Darius Kemp 



“After a careful analysis of the process, we have determined California meets our fairness criteria. Given this meets Common Cause’s standards, we will not support nor oppose the efforts going forward and will focus on election protection, voter education, and empowerment. While our criteria have been met, we continue to oppose any reduction in election funding and language access proposed in SB 280. 



Statement of Common Cause’s Texas Director Anthony Gutierrez 



“From the outset, these proposed maps were forced on the people of Texas and after close review, this process fails to meet our fairness criteria.  We will lead a people-powered movement to oppose this effort to disenfranchise the voters for the sake of a short-sighted power grab. Texas Republicans must reverse course and end this attempt to further gerrymander our state. The outcome of the 2026 midterm elections should be decided by voters, not politicians.” 



To read Common Cause’s six fairness criteria for mid-decade redistricting, click here.