California voters approved a redistricting plan on Tuesday, delivering a major victory for Democrats nationwide and potentially Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political ambitions, which could help the party capture as many as five congressional seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
The ballot measure is seen as a harsh rebuke of President Trump and his administration’s policies, which include divisive immigration raids, steep tariffs, health care cuts and the military occupation of Los Angeles.
Proposition 50 was introduced with surprising speed in August in an effort to counter President Trump’s success in pressuring Republican-led states, especially Texas, to gerrymander their own states to prevent Democrats from gaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 midterm elections. If Democrats gain power, they could jeopardize his agenda and launch investigations into his administration.
“You poke the bear, and the bear starts roaring,” Newsom said Tuesday night, shortly after the vote closed and The Associated Press determined Proposition 50 had passed.
Newsom said he was proud of California for standing up to Trump and called on other states with Democratic-controlled legislatures to pass their own redistricting plans.
“I hope people realize the sobriety of this moment,” he said.
Meanwhile, the president posted on his social media site Tuesday morning that the vote was “a huge scam” and “rigged,” and said it is “under very serious legal and criminal scrutiny. Stay tuned!” The White House did not explain what he meant by “serious legal and criminal scrutiny.” After the polls closed, Trump posted again, cryptically writing, “…and that’s how it all started.”
Newsom earlier on Tuesday dismissed Trump’s threats as “the ramblings of an old man who knows he’s going to lose.”
Proposition 50 would change how California determines congressional district boundaries. The measure, which requires voters to approve new congressional district lines, is intended to favor Democrats in the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections by overturning maps drawn by the state’s nonpartisan, independent redistricting commission.
The measure, voted on by the Democratic-led state Legislature and pushed by Newsom, reconfigures the state’s congressional districts in favor of Democrats, turning five additional House districts into areas where Democrats are competitive or easy to win. The California House of Representatives has 43 Democrats and 9 Republicans; now the number of Republican members may be reduced by half.
While Newsom and fellow Democratic partisans see passage of Proposition 50, which they call the “Election Rigging Response Act,” as a major blow to Trump’s iron grip on the federal government, it is far from guaranteed to reverse the balance of power in the Republican House’s slim majority.
First, Republican-led states, driven by Trump, are busy rolling out their own redistricting plans. Progress is being made in several Republican-controlled states, including North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri.
What’s more, by the fall of 2026, California voters must be convinced to choose Democratic challengers in these new districts over incumbent Republicans — and many current congressional Republicans say they don’t plan to go quietly.
“There’s one thing Newsom and his cronies don’t know: This isn’t going to work,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, a San Diego-area Republican whose seat is the target of the newly redrawn map. “The worst gerrymandering in history has a fatal flaw. Voters get to choose their representatives. Not the other way around. I’m not going anywhere.”
Congressman Doug LaMalfa, whose Northern California district is carved up and diluted by left-leaning coastal voters, said he’s “fighting. They’re not going to kidnap my district without a fight.”
But what is certain is that Proposition 50 is a major victory for Newsom, who has thrust the fight against Trump onto the national political stage and become one of the loudest voices opposing the new administration.
To campaign for Proposition 50, Newsom mocked Trump in sarcastic, Trumpian, all-caps media posts on the social media site X. The governor has achieved viral fame, guest spots on late-night shows and millions of dollars from Democratic donors across the country who are excited to see someone take on the president. In recent days, Newsom has begun talking publicly about the possibility of running for president in 2028, telling CBS last month that he would be lying if he tried to pretend he wasn’t considering it.
The new congressional districts are also expected to spark a wild race among ambitious Democratic politicians.
Strategist and education director Audrey Denney has announced she will renew her campaign against LaMalfa, who represents a district that has been split into two districts saturated with Democratic voters. Meanwhile, former state Sen. Richard Pan said he plans to target Congressman Kevin Kiley, who has watched his hometown of Rocklin ousted from his district and replaced by parts of more Democratic Sacramento.
One of the measure’s biggest impacts may be that it angers many of the state’s rural voters and makes even those registered Democrats feel like state leaders don’t care about their needs.
“They think our voices are too small and unimportant and because we’re red,” fumed Monica Rossman, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors of Glen County in rural Northern California. “This is just one more way they’re exploiting us rural people.”
Rothman used obscene language to describe Newsom this week, adding, “People who come from urban areas, they don’t realize, we who come from a Taco Bell town don’t know what it’s like to drive by a dealership and see nothing but battery-powered vehicles. And by traffic, we mean Ted’s cows are out again and we have to wait for them to get out of the way. We’re going to let people make decisions in areas they know nothing about.”
But as they head to the polls across the state, many voters say the Trump administration’s actions in California — from funding cuts to lengthy immigration raids — have convinced them that drastic measures are necessary.
Adee Renteria came to vote at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in East Los Angeles, dressed head to toe in Dodgers celebratory gear, and said she voted for Proposition 50 because “I want a damn voice.”
“I want our people to be able to walk the streets without being kidnapped,” she said, adding that she believed the measure would give Democrats a chance to fight back against policies she said sow terror in communities.
Guarav Jain, 33, said in Buena Park that he risked long lines to vote “to prove that we can fight back against Trump’s crazy rhetoric.”
“This is the first opportunity since the incident to make our voices heard [presidential] election last November,” he added.
The road to launch of Proposition 50, the fourth most expensive ballot measure in California history, began in June. That’s when Trump’s political team began urging Texas Republicans to redraw the boundaries of the state’s 38 congressional districts to gain five Republican seats and give his party a better chance of controlling the House after the midterm elections.
When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed the idea, Newsom jumped in to announce that California, which has 52 representatives, would fight back by redrawing its own districts to try to win as many as five seats for Democrats.
“We are giving the American people a fair chance,” Newsom said in August, adding that California was “responding to what happened in Texas.”
The move angered California Republicans and angered some, like former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who were not fans of Trump. Some opponents see it as an insult to the independent Congressional Redistricting Commission, which California voters established in 2010 through Proposition 20 to provide fair representation for all Californians.
“They’re trying to fight for democracy by dismantling the principles of democracy in California… It’s crazy to allow that to happen,” Schwarzenegger said at a USC event in September. “That doesn’t make any sense to me — because we have to stand up to Trump in order to be Trump.”
But Schwarzenegger did not actively oppose the measure, and the opposition was far behind financially. Supporters raised more than $100 million, while opponents raised about $43.7 million, according to campaign finance reports.
A star-studded cast of Democratic leaders also took to the airwaves to support the measure, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. President Obama addressed the issue in an ad that aired during the World Series. “Democracy will vote on November 4,” the former president said.
The new congressional district maps are only temporary. They will hold elections next year, in 2028 and in 2030. After that, the California Independent Redistricting Commission will resume map-drawing duties.
What may be more enduring, some rural representatives say, is that many in California’s heartland believe their voices don’t matter.
LaMalfa, a congressman whose deep-red district is divided into two blue urban areas, said many of his constituents — people who work in agriculture, timber and ranching — believe many state policies are “bad for them and they have nowhere to go.”
“What they have is a voice that understands their plight and is willing to speak up for them. I’m one of the people who does that,” he said. “If you draw all these people into urban constituencies, you don’t have that anymore.”
Times staff writers Sonja Sharp, Katie King and Katerina Portela contributed to this report.
