Darrell Issa Considering Texas Congressional Run as California Redistricting Turns His Seat Blue

SAN DIEGO – Veteran Republican Congressman Darrell Issa is seriously weighing a move to Texas to run for Congress in 2026, multiple sources confirmed Tuesday, after California’s newly enacted Proposition 50 redrew his San Diego-based district into one of the most vulnerable GOP seats in the nation.

The 72-year-old Issa, who has represented portions of northern San Diego and southwestern Riverside counties for all but two years since 2001, told supporters as recently as Thanksgiving week that he intended to seek a 13th full term in the newly numbered CA-48. That stance has shifted dramatically in the wake of the Prop 50 map, which voters approved by a narrow margin last month and which added thousands of Democratic voters from Escondido, San Marcos, Vista, and the Coachella Valley city of Palm Springs.

According to Cook Political Report’s initial analysis released Monday, the new CA-48 has flipped from a Solid R seat to a pure Toss-up, with Democrats now enjoying an approximate four-point voter-registration edge and a projected partisan lean of D+2 to D+3. In presidential terms, the redrawn district would have supported Joe Biden by roughly five points in 2020 — a 17-point swing to the left from the old lines.

Punchbowl News first reported Tuesday that Issa has begun quietly exploring a campaign in Texas’s newly created Republican-leaning TX-32, a Dallas-area seat currently held by freshman Democrat Julie Johnson. The Texas map, finalized earlier this year after prolonged litigation, transformed the district from D+15 to roughly R+8, making it one of the Lone Star State’s few open Republican opportunities if Johnson declines to run in hostile territory.

A spokesperson for Issa declined to confirm the Texas discussions but did not dispute the reporting. “Congressman Issa is focused on serving his constituents and will make a decision about his political future in the coming weeks,” the statement read.

The potential move would mark a stunning geographic and political pivot for Issa, who built his $500 million fortune in Vista with the Viper car-alarm company and has long branded himself as a Southern California fixture. Friends describe him as deeply frustrated with Sacramento Democrats’ successful push for Prop 50, which independent analysts say was crafted specifically to jeopardize several GOP incumbents, including Issa and Orange County’s Michelle Steel and Young Kim.

If Issa departs, Republicans fear an open-seat free-for-all in CA-48. San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond and former Assemblyman Kevin Kiley are already being mentioned as possible successors, while at least eleven Democrats — led by San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert and 2020/2022 nominee Ammar Campa-Najjar — have jumped into the race.

National Republicans privately acknowledge that holding the seat without Issa and his personal wealth would be an uphill battle. One GOP strategist familiar with the district called it “the single biggest map-induced disaster for House Republicans in the country.”

Issa has until California’s March 2026 filing deadline to decide his next move. In Texas, the candidate filing period closes even earlier, in mid-December 2025 — adding urgency to any relocation plans.

For now, one of California’s longest-serving Republicans appears poised to become the most prominent congressional refugee of the 2025 redistricting cycle.