California voters hand major redistricting win to Democrats

California residents voted on Tuesday to approve Proposition 50, which is a ballot initiative that could lead to California Democrats seizing five additional congressional seats in the 2026 midterm elections.  

According to Fox News, California voters approved the controversial ballot initiative during Tuesday’s election. Proposition 50 will now temporarily suspend California’s independent redistricting commission and will return congressional redistricting power to the Democrat-led state legislature.

Fox News reported that the Proposition 50 initiative was launched by Newsom and the Democrat Party in an effort to counter the recent passage of a new congressional map in Texas that could give Republicans five additional House seats. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have led redistricting efforts in multiple Republican-led states in order to solidify the Republican majority in the House of Representatives ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) wrote, “Tonight, California sent a powerful message to Donald Trump. We will fight for our democracy. And we will win.” 

“Donald Trump poked the bear. And the bear roared back,” Newsom added in another statement on social media.

According to Fox News, Newsom recently warned that if California Democrats lost the Proposition 50 ballot initiative, Republicans would continue to control the White House, the Senate, and the House for two more years. On the other hand, he suggested that if the ballot initiative passed, it would “put a check on Trump for his final two years.”

In a statement obtained by Fox News following Tuesday’s election, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, “California voters have sent a strong and clear message that they will not stand by while Republicans try to rig the 2026 election.”

DelBene added, “By overwhelmingly voting to pass Proposition 50, Californians are fighting back against the GOP’s disastrous record of raising costs and ripping away health care from millions, all to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chair of the rival National Republican Congressional Committee, warned that “no matter how Democrats redraw the lines to satisfy Gavin Newsom’s power grab, they can’t redraw their record of failure, and that’s why they will fail to take the House majority.”

“Even under this new map, Republicans have clear opportunities to flip seats because Californians are fed up with Democrat chaos,” Hudson added.