California votes on ballot initiative to reshape congressional districts
Obama pushes Newsom’s Proposition 50 before Election Day
Paul Gigot moderates a “Journal Editorial Report” panel to discuss the upcoming special election in California to vote on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50, which some criticize as gerrymandering, and the upcoming upholding vote on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
It’s Election Day in California, where a ballot initiative will have a huge impact on next year’s battle for the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, whether it passes or fails.
California voters are deciding whether to adopt a ballot proposition that would dramatically change the state’s congressional districts, putting the left-leaning state front and center in the high-stakes political fight over redistricting that pits President Donald Trump and the Republican Party against Democrats.
California state lawmakers this summer approved a special proposal on the November ballot aimed at seeking voter approval to temporarily hijack the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and return congressional map-drawing power to the Democratic-dominated Legislature. Early voting by mail in the contest has been underway for a month.
LIVE UPDATES: ELECTION DAY 2025
The effort in California, which could create five additional Democratic-leaning congressional districts, aims to counter the reliably red state of Texas’ passage of a new map that aims to create up to five right-wing seats in the House. Failure to approve so-called Proposition 50 would be a bitter setback for Democrats.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced plans for a special election to gain voter approval for a new congressional map on August 14, 2025, in Los Angeles. (PA)
OBAMA APPROVES CALIFORNIA NEWSOM’S PROP 50 REDISTRIBUTION
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is considered a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, is spearheading efforts to pass the proposal.
“If we lose here, we will have full Republican control in the House, the Senate and the White House for at least two more years,” Newsom stressed during a recent fundraising appeal to his supporters. “If we win here, we can put the brakes on Trump for his last two years.”
GO HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORT, ANALYSIS, ON THE 2025 ELECTIONS
Trump and Republicans’ push for rare redistricting in the middle of the decade is part of a broader GOP effort to shore up its paper-thin House majority to maintain control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the ruling party traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.
Trump and his political team aim to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats won back the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, October 6, 2025, in Washington, DC (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Last month, Missouri joined Texas as the second GOP-controlled state to pass congressional redistricting ahead of next year’s elections. Missouri’s new map will likely give the GOP another right-wing seat.
And North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature also passed a new map, which is likely to return another congressional seat to the GOP. Republican-controlled Indiana is on deck, with a special legislative session beginning this week.
But unlike those states, California voters must give their input before returning redistricting power to the legislature in Sacramento.
“Heaven help us if we lose,” Newsom said during a fundraising speech. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment.”
FIVE KEY RACES TO WATCH IN 2025
Supporters and opponents of Proposition 50 have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in fundraising, with much of the money going to pay for a barrage of ads on both sides.
One of the two main groups opposing Newsom and the Democrats called their efforts “Stop the Sacramento Power Takeover.”
Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the last Republican governor of California, joined the fight.
Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is opposing Democrats’ decision to suspend the state’s nonpartisan redistricting committee. (Tristar Media/WireImage)
During his tenure as governor, Schwarzenegger played a leading role in passing constitutional amendments in California in 2008 and 2010, which took the power to strip state legislative and congressional districts away from politicians and placed it in the hands of an independent commission.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA VOTERS WEIGH IN ON PROP 50 REDISTRIBUTION FIGHT
“That’s what they want to do, is set us back — that’s why it’s important that you vote no on Proposition 50,” Schwarzenegger said in an ad against Proposition 50. “Democracy — we have to protect it, and we have to fight for it.”
But as Election Day approached in California, Yes forces had significantly outpaced No forces, and public opinion polls indicated majority support for the proposition.
Even before Trump launched his redistricting campaign, Ohio was under court order to redraw its maps. That could strengthen Republicans in a battleground state that now leans to the right.
Republicans in GOP-dominated Florida are also mulling congressional redistricting. And Democrats in deep-blue Maryland are considering redistricting, while the Democratic-controlled legislature in Virginia is already pushing redistricting.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Other states considering changes to their maps include Democratic-dominated Illinois and the red states of Kansas and Nebraska.
Meanwhile, Democrats could potentially win a seat in Republican-dominated Utah thanks to a new, more competitive, judge-mandated map.
