A big win for California Governor Gavin Newsom could tip the balance of power in Congress in favor of Democrats.
Published on November 5, 2025
California has passed a ballot measure that would redraw district boundaries to favor Democrats in next year’s critical midterm elections to counterattack against the president of the United States. Donald TrumpFascism in Republican States.
Early results from Tuesday’s polls appeared to have been approved by voters Proposition 50 By a two-to-one margin in what was seen as a landslide victory for the Democratic governor Gavin NewsomBoosting his party’s chances of winning control of the US Congress in next year’s polls and thereby thwarting Trump’s agenda.
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Approval of the measure means Democrats could win as many as five additional seats in the House, offsetting five seats Texas Republicans are looking to pick up after Trump called for his own redrawing of maps. Republicans are expected to pick up one seat each from the new maps in Missouri and North Carolina, and potentially two more in Ohio.
Trump responded angrily to Newsom’s battle. “The unconstitutional redistricting vote in California is a massive scam in which the entire process, especially the vote itself, has been rigged,” he wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, on Tuesday.
Newsom, who is vying for the leadership of the Democratic Party ahead of the 2028 presidential election, hit back at his willingness to stand up to Trump, describing the Republican reaction as “the struggle of an old man who knows he’s going to lose.” Going to X after the win, he said voters had sent a “powerful message” to Trump.
Tonight, California sent a powerful message to Donald Trump. We will fight for our democracy. And we will win. pic.twitter.com/tEcPlxVbi4
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) 5 November 2025
New district boundaries will apply for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections. Generally, they are drawn by an independent commission after the national census taken every 10 years, so the electoral map reflects the people who live there. In reality, most of the boundaries have been rejected by the parties in power.
The redistricting aims to reduce the power of Republican voters by combining rural, conservative-leaning areas of far Northern California with Marin County, a famously liberal coastal stronghold across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
Newsom had sought to nationalize the campaign, portraying the proposal as a tool to thwart Trump’s efforts to destroy democracy. In one televised campaign, an angry Trump imagined he was watching the results on TV as he threw French fries at the television.
Former President Barack Obama threw his weight behind this decision. “Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress for the next election and run two more years of unchecked power,” he said in an ad. “You can stop Republicans in their tracks.”
Critics say two wrongs don’t make a right. He called on Californians to reject what he called a Democratic power grab, despite misgivings about Trump’s moves in Republican-led states.
One of the most prominent critics was former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who oversaw the creation of an independent commission approved in 2008 and 2010.
Schwarzenegger argued that the proposal would “take power away from the people”.