(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) House Republicans formally lost a member Monday, further complicating the razor-thin 218–214 partisan breakdown in the 119th Congress.
California Rep. Kevin Kiley ditched the GOP to become an independent after California Gov. Gavin Newsom redrew his district in a sweeping gerrymandering effort.
While Kiley will continue caucusing with Republicans for the remainder of his term, he will not be formally affiliated with either party for other purposes, including reelection.
Kiley, first elected in 2023, is now running in California’s 6th Congressional District after the redrawn map upended his current seat.
“Gerrymandering is a plague on democracy, one that Gavin Newsom has brought back to California,” Kiley wrote Friday on X. “But there’s a way we can fight back and protect our democracy from his partisan games: by removing partisanship from the equation. Today, I filed for reelection as ‘No Party Preference.’”
He continued: “This means I will not have a party affiliation on the ballot or as an officeholder. That’s how it already is with most offices in our state: mayors, city councilors, school board members, county supervisors, sheriffs, and DAs are all nonpartisan.”
Gerrymandering is a plague on democracy, one that Gavin Newsom has brought back to California. But there’s a way we can fight back and protect our democracy from his partisan games: by removing partisanship from the equation. Today, I filed for reelection as “No Party… pic.twitter.com/OhGDzKtPEp
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) March 7, 2026
The new makeup means House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., now holds a narrow 217–214 majority over Democrats.
Kiley suggested he would not necessarily be a reliable vote for Johnson despite caucusing with the GOP. “I don’t know if he would tell you I have been so far,” he said in an interview with Axios.
Kiley won reelection in 2024 in the 3rd District by more than 10 percentage points. However, under the new map, he was widely expected to lose reelection as the district now includes more Democratic-leaning areas.
The 6th Congressional District, where he is now running, is expected to be more competitive, according to the New York Post.
Newsom’s redistricting push came after Texas Republicans passed legislation to redraw their own congressional districts.
In California, however, the power to draw congressional maps had previously been assigned to a bipartisan citizens commission, which most recently handled redistricting in 2021.
Newsom proposed a statewide ballot initiative to temporarily strip that authority from the commission.
Voters ultimately approved the measure, dubbed Proposition 50, allowing California Democrats to redraw the map in a way that could flip all five Republican-held seats.
