Breaking News: Rebuking Trump, California passes Prop 50 to redistrict in favor of Democrats… Read More

Breaking News: Rebuking Trump, California passes Prop 50 to redistrict in favor of Democrats… Read More

California voters sent a strong anti-Donald Trump message on Tuesday by passing Proposition 50, another big win for Democrats during the 2025 off-year election that helps the party in the nationwide redistricting frenzy that will help decide who controls the U.S. House in the final two years of the Republican president’s second term.

Prop. 50 is a constitutional amendment pushed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that would allow the nation’s most populous state to temporarily stop using a nonpartisan commission to draw congressional district boundaries. Instead, California will use lines drawn by Democratic state lawmakers to increase the seats they hold in Congress.

After the 2030 U.S. Census the nonpartisan commission will resume drawing the lines.

The California measure was one of the most important issues being decided during an Election Day that saw Democrats also win their governor races in New Jersey and Virginia. It essentially negates the five new Republican-leaning congressional districts Texas created earlier this year at Trump’s urging. Those boundaries have been challenged in federal court.
At least a dozen states have changed their boundary lines or are in the process of doing so before the 2026 midterms. But, with the largest Republican and Democratic delegations, respectively, all eyes have been on what Texas and California would do.

Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House and historically, the party that controls the White House fares poorly in midterm elections.

tinue one of the most aggressive and disruptive agendas in modern presidential history for his entire term. A Democratic majority opens the door to years of congressional investigations, legislative paralysis − even a third Trump impeachment.

Other states underway
Republicans have signed a new maps into law in Missouri — though voters may have the opportunity to reject the Missouri map in a special election. Ohio approved new maps in a bipartisan deal, North Carolina redrew districts expected to edge out one House Democrat and Indiana lawmakers have set a date next month to consider redistricting.

Democratic leaders are also pushing blue states to drawing new lines to help their party too. Democratic-controlled legislatures in Illinois, New York, and Maryland are considering it.
Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington are still speaking with state lawmakers and more states could follow suit. But with the 2026 primaries beginning in the spring, time is beginning to run out.

California support for the change appeared high during the weeks of early voting despite the state’s longtime pride over the nonpartisan commission, said Mark Baldassare, survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California and a leading expert on California voter opinion.
A statewide survey released Oct. 28 by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 56% of likely voters said they would vote yes on the proposition. The survey also found that regardless of their position on the proposition, nine in 10 voters said they believe the outcome is somewhat important, and two in three said it was very important.

“We’ve not seen such a high level of importance placed on a ballot proposition since the survey began measuring this over 20 years ago,” said PPIC researcher Deja Thomas.
The survey found that Trump’s consistently low approval ratings in California remained in place and that Californians identify political extremism or threats to democracy as the most important problem facing the nation.