LOS ANGELES - A national political battle over redistricting is escalating as California lawmakers approved a special election that will be held Nov. 4 for voters to decide on the newly proposed congressional maps. Lawmakers voted mostly along party lines after hours of debate. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation Thursday evening.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a series of bills calling for new congressional maps that could add up to five Democratic seats in Congress, a response to an ongoing, Trump-led effort in Texas to use redistricting there to carve out five additional GOP seats.

Democratic legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom are selling Thursday's plans for a November statewide vote as a counterweight to Texas Republicans' redistricting.

A California legislative hearing turned into a shouting match Tuesday as a Republican lawmaker clashed with Democrats over a partisan plan to rewrite U.S. House maps to win Democrats more seats. A committee voted along party lines to advance a new congressional map in response to a Republican redistricting effort in Texas that President Donald Trump wants.

California is a crucial battlefront in a coast-to-coast political civil war over congressional redistricting, a war that Republicans nationally appear better positioned to win.

The maps need to be approved by the GOP-controlled state Senate and signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott before they become official.