California governor threatens "trigger" redistricting plan based on what Texas GOP decides

• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and his caucus are in sync with a grassroots call to aggressively counter Republican tactics.

Zoom in: Newsom, raising another voice in the push, said during Friday's press conference with California Democratic leaders, they are calling for a special election the first week of November.

• "California will not sit by idly and watch this Democracy waste away," he said.
• "We'll fight fire with fire. We'll assert ourselves, and we'll punch above our weight, and it will have profound impacts on the national outcome, not just here in the state of California."

Catch up quick: Some 50 Texas Democrats left the state on Sunday to prevent a GOP House vote on redistricting. The FBI is working with local law enforcement to find them, per Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

• Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbott referenced deadly Guadalupe River flooding in his push to see Democratic legislators return to the state.
• "Our fellow Texans are being let down and not getting the flood relief they need, because these Democrats have absconded from the responsibility," he said in a Fox News interview on Monday.

What they're saying: Texas state Rep. Ann Johnson said during Friday's press conference there is an arrest warrant to force Democrats back to the state "for one bill only."

• "They don't want us to come back for flooding," she said. "They are using those families as a distraction."
• Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa said she has gotten 700 calls on the issue and all but four supported her effort.

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who also attended the press conference, said this is not a case of two wrongs.

• "This is not a wrong," she said. "This is self-defense for our democracy."

Go deeper:

• Democrats investigate FBI effort to "hunt down" Texas legislators
• House Democrats prepare to go scorched earth on redistricting