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Prop 50 radically redrew Rep. Kevin Kiley’s previous congressional district. He’s now running in the 6th District, and will face Democrat Richard Pan.<\/p>\n
Tom Williams\/CQ Roll Call\/TNS<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s bid to help Democrats take control of the House faced its first major test this month in the state\u2019s primary elections<\/a>, which determined the candidates who will face off in the November midterms. With all of the races called, it\u2019s clear: The maps are working as Democrats intended.<\/p>\n California voters endorsed Newsom\u2019s strategy in a special election<\/a> last year, scrapping the state\u2019s previous congressional districts drawn by an independent commission and approving new ones drawn by Democrats to give their candidates an edge.<\/p>\n Democrats hope to flip five seats currently held by Republicans to Democratic control under the new maps while boosting their incumbents in what were formerly swing districts.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n When Prop 50 passed, it was one of several efforts underway by Democrats to counter redistricting efforts begun by Republicans to shift more congressional seats in their favor. Now, the calculus has shifted<\/a>, after efforts by Democrats in Virginia and New York have fallen short and more redistricting bids in Republican-led states have succeeded, in part thanks to a Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act<\/a>. That means there\u2019s even more riding on California\u2019s congressional districts.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at how those races are shaping up after the primary:<\/p>\n District 1<\/p>\n One of the most audacious moves of Prop 50 was to carve up the heavily Republican rural north state and lump its voters in with liberal cities and coastal communities hundreds of miles away. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, is now poised to represent a new district that stretches all the way<\/a> from Marin County to the northeastern corner of California. And this open seat, which cuts from Santa Rosa through Chico to the Nevada border, looks set to elect a Democrat in what was once the territory of the ultraconservative Rep. Doug LaMalfa.<\/p>\n Rep. Jared Huffman meets with tribal leaders in his newly redrawn district in Burney on Jan. 27, 2026. Prop 50 expanded Huffman’s district to include much of the upper northeastern portions of the state.<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Republican Assembly Member James Gallagher\u00a0\u2014 a protege of the late LaMalfa, who died unexpectedly in January<\/a> from a heart condition\u00a0\u2014 won a special election to serve out the remainder of LaMalfa\u2019s term under the old lines. But he\u2019s an underdog in November, when he\u2019ll face Democratic former state Senate leader Mike McGuire. Gallagher received 44% of the vote in the primary, as of Tuesday, while McGuire and fellow Democrat Audrey Denney, who finished third, combined for more than 54%.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n District 6<\/p>\n Cracking apart Rep. Kevin Kiley\u2019s sprawling district along the eastern border of California allowed for the creation of two new Democratic-leaning seats that unfurl from the Sacramento suburbs.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Rep. Ami Bera, D-Sacramento, jumped into the elephant head-shaped 3rd District. He advanced out of the primary ahead of several Democratic challengers\u00a0\u2014 they collectively combined for more than 55% of the vote, as of Tuesday\u00a0\u2014 and will face Republican Robb Tucker, a Nevada County supervisor, in November.<\/p>\n After a reality show-esque deliberation<\/a> about where to run, Kiley, who dropped his Republican affiliation<\/a> in March, settled on the 6th District, which includes his home base of Rocklin (Placer County). Early primary results showed the crowded Democratic field at risk of a lockout<\/a>, splitting the vote and potentially allowing independent Kiley and Republican Michael Stansfield to advance. But former state Sen. Richard Pan has since pulled ahead of Stansfield as more votes were counted. The five Democrats account for nearly 54% of the vote, as of Tuesday, putting Pan in a good position to deny Kiley another term.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n District 22<\/p>\n For more than a decade, Democrats have tried to take out Rep. David Valadao, the Bakersfield Republican who has (mostly) defied a Democratic voter registration advantage to hold onto this seat<\/a> in the southern Central Valley. (After narrowly losing in 2018, he won it back two years later.) So Prop 50 added a section from Fresno County that tips the partisan lean even more Democratic.<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t stop the party from fighting over how to beat him<\/a>. House Democrats\u2019 campaign arm intervened in the primary to boost the more moderate Assembly Member Jasmeet Bains, infuriating progressives who backed Randy Villegas, a community college political science professor running as a populist outsider. Villegas ultimately prevailed.<\/p>\n Republicans will surely now attack him as too liberal for the district as he tries to oust Valadao in November. But there are flashing warning signs for Valadao, who received less than 41% of the primary vote, as of Tuesday, compared with more than 59% for the Democrats. In 2024, under the old district lines, Valadao and another Republican candidate combined for nearly 55% in the primary, before he beat his Democratic opponent by almost 7 percentage points that November.<\/p>\n Districts 40 and 41<\/p>\n To create another Democratic seat in Southern California, the new maps pack many of the Republican voters in the suburban Orange County 40th District represented by Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim, and the Inland Empire-based 41st District represented by Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Palm Desert (Riverside County), together into a new 40th District. Prop 50 created a new District 41 that includes Democratic voters in Eastern Los Angeles County and Northern Orange County.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Rep. Young Kim, R-Anaheim Hills, was part of a Republican delegation that met with President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his inauguration. She’s pictured here chairing a roundtable on U.S.-Taiwan relations at Santiago Canyon College in Orange, California, on Sept. 6, 2024. (Jeff Gritchen\/Orange County Register\/TNS)<\/p>\n Jeff Gritchen\/TNS<\/p>\n That gambit appears to have worked. Kim and Calvert are now locked in a battle for District 40, having both advanced to the general election. Calvert enters the general election as an apparent favorite, having secured 35% of the vote compared with Kim\u2019s 21%.<\/p>\n In District 41, Democrat Linda Sanchez appears to have a clear advantage over Republican plumber Mitch Clemmons. Sanchez, who currently represents District 38, and two other Democrats garnered about 64% of the vote in the primary.<\/p>\n Democrats are also primed to retain District 38, where three Democratic candidates are also winning about 64% of the vote. The leading Democrat, Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, will face Republican Pedro Casas, a retired Army colonel, in the general election.<\/p>\n District 48<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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