California voters easily approved a ballot measure to redraw the state’s congressional map in favor of Democrats, according to an Associated Press result call, marking the party’s biggest win so far in a national battle over redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The measure, called Proposition 50, will replace lines drawn by an independent commission with a map that could deliver up to five new seats to Democrats in next year’s U.S. House elections.
The AP called the victory shortly after polls closed in California. The result caps a strong election night for Democrats, who also scored notable wins in Virginia and New Jersey.
In a shortened campaign that saturated California radio and TV airwaves with ads, Governor Gavin Newsom convinced voters that the state needed to draw new maps to combat gerrymandering ordered by President Trump in Republican-led states like Texas.
In Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina, new Republican-favorable maps were approved after state legislatures’ approval.
But in California, Newsom and Democratic allies needed voter approval for the new political lines, because in 2010 voters had transferred the power to draw congressional lines to an independent citizens’ commission.
The commission remains popular in California, but Newsom managed to amplify the partisan stakes of the campaign, arguing that California couldn’t sit idly by while Republicans secured a substantial advantage through redistricting ahead of the midterm elections that will decide control of a divided House of Representatives.
The results, said California political strategist Erica Kwiatkowski Nielsen, “show a huge appetite and willingness of Californians to position themselves against Donald Trump”.
“I think the campaign did a fantastic job of saying and acknowledging people’s fears, like, hey, we were leaders in California on redistricting, but this isn’t politics as usual”, said Nielsen. “These are unprecedented times.”
Newsom’s “Yes” Side Wins the Money Battle
Newsom, who has positioned himself as Trump’s chief opponent, amassed a war chest to support the measure — raising nearly $120 million by Friday. Top donors included the House Majority PAC, a group working to elect Democrats in the House, and George Soros’s Fund for Policy Reform.
The Yes campaign flooded the state with ads featuring top Democrats, from former President Barack Obama to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Polls in the campaign’s final week showed over 90% of Democrats supporting the measure and over 90% of Republicans opposing it.
This did not bode well for opponents of Proposition 50, given Democrats’ strong registration advantage in the state.
The campaign against Proposition 50 was led by Charles Munger Jr., a San Francisco Bay Area donor who funded the original campaign to create the citizens’ redistricting commission in 2008. Munger contributed nearly $33 million to the No on 50 campaign — but his donations accounted for about three-quarters of the $44 million raised by opponents.
Other Republican heavyweights stayed away from the campaign, and spending against Proposition 50 dried up in the final weeks of the race as polls showed the measure opening a wide lead.
Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Republican California governor who worked with Munger to create the citizens’ commission, played a restrained role in the campaign — voicing opposition to Proposition 50 in only a few interviews and public appearances.
The changes to the state’s congressional map will certainly provoke a series of tough decisions for Republican incumbents in the coming weeks.
U.S. Reps. Ken Calvert, Darrell Issa, Kevin Kiley, and Doug LaMalfa will have to decide whether to run in districts where reelection chances range from challenging to virtually impossible.
The new lines approved under Proposition 50 will remain in effect until the 2030 elections, after which the citizens’ commission would resume redistricting responsibilities.
Source: npr.org by Guy Marzorati