{"id":369724,"date":"2026-06-22T02:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T02:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369724\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T02:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T02:41:15","slug":"did-redistricting-work-in-democrats-favor-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369724\/","title":{"rendered":"Did redistricting work in Democrats favor in California?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early results so far show that California<\/a>\u2019s Democrats found success through their redistricting efforts, meant to help the party gain five seats.<\/p>\n

The Golden State\u2019s \u201cjungle primary system\u201d allows two candidates with the most votes to advance to the general election regardless of their party affiliation, so Republicans are already feeling the effects of redistricting after the primary election on June 2.<\/p>\n

For Republicans, \u201cProp 50 was pretty detrimental,\u201d said Victor Lopez, the co-founder and managing partner at Imperio Chaos, a New York-based PR firm. \u201cIt did do damage to the landscape for this competitive congressional seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conservative-leaning places in the state like San Diego are \u201con the verge of potentially losing all congressional seats to Democrats within the county.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans this cycle are in huge trouble in California,\u201d said Lopez.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s historically conservative regions, like San Diego and Orange County<\/a>, have become more purple in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a Republican in California is worse now than it was in 2020 and 2024, when they got wiped out significantly,\u201d said Lopez. At the time, he witnessed a campaign \u201cslap a Trump picture or logo\u201d on their campaign and \u201close significantly\u201d for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegistration is king,\u201d Lopez said. California is home to about 10 million registered Democratic voters and 5.8 million Republican voters. Independents also make up a large chunk of the electorate with 5.23 million voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to have more names shift toward running as independents rather than Republican candidates, just because of the baggage that\u2019s affiliated with that, and more importantly, because of the registration going against it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans are doing what they can to close the gap.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, who represents California\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent. \u201cPartisanship has absolutely run amok,\u201d he told CBS News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a one-off.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt also ran as an independent despite being a registered Republican. He ended up losing out to two Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

Richard Bailey opted to reregister as an Independent when he launched his bid for San Diego City Council earlier this year. Bailey also moved away from his party-line issues and is more focused on quality-of-life problems in his city, like Pratt.<\/p>\n

\"Election<\/p>\n

An “I Voted” sign stands near the entrance of the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center as workers take a break the day after California’s primary election, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. | Jae C. Hong, Associated Press<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornians are still \u2026 fiscally conservative. People don\u2019t want rising costs,\u201d said Lopez. But they care about social issues, with three in four adults disapproving<\/a> of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s deportation policies.<\/p>\n

Here is a look at five races that were impacted by redistricting.<\/p>\n

District 1<\/p>\n

Republican state Rep. James Gallagher won the special election for the 1st Congressional District with 62% of the vote. He will fill the seat left vacant by Republican Doug LaMalfa, who died earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"Election<\/p>\n

Rep. James Gallagher, R-Calif., joined by his wife Janna Gallagher, center, stands with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., during a ceremonial reenactment just after he was sworn in following his win in California’s 1st Congressional District special election, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 10, 2026. | J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press<\/p>\n

As NBC News reported<\/a>, this special election used the map in effect during 2024 that led to President Donald Trump winning by 25% of the vote and LaMalfa winning by 30%.<\/p>\n

When Gallagher runs again in November, he will face the impact of the newly drawn map. He acknowledged this in a statement following the results, saying he \u201cwill be running in a new district, drawn not by an independent citizens commission, but in a backroom by my opponent Mike McGuire and other Sacramento politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

District 3 and District 6<\/p>\n

Republican Kevin Kiley, who represents California\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, not only changed his party affiliation to independent, he also decided not to run for reelection for his district after the passage of Prop 50. Instead, he ran for the 6th Congressional District, which is Democratic-leaning.<\/p>\n

Kiley advanced to the runoff election in November against Richard Pan, a Democrat and a former California state senator.<\/p>\n

As for the 3rd District, rated \u201csolidly Democratic\u201d by the Cook Political Report, Ami Bera, a seven-term Democratic incumbent, and Robb Tucker, a local business owner, advanced to the runoff.<\/p>\n

District 22<\/p>\n

College professor Randy Villegas, a progressive backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, advanced to the runoff. He will face incumbent Rep. David Valadao, a Republican, in November.<\/p>\n

If Valadao wins in November, he will be the last<\/a> House Republican remaining in the House who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 over Jan. 6. This race is a toss-up according to the Cook Political Report.<\/p>\n

District 40 and 41<\/p>\n

Because of the limited opportunities for the GOP in California, the race for the 40th District, which includes parts of Los Angeles County and Orange County, attracted two elected Republicans vying for the same seat.<\/p>\n

Rep. Ken Calvert decided to run for the 40th Congressional District after the district he currently represents was gerrymandered to be more Democratic.<\/p>\n

He is up against Rep. Young Kim, another Republican who currently represents a part of the newly drawn 40th Congressional District.<\/p>\n

District 48<\/p>\n

San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican and Trump-endorsed, and San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert, a Democrat, have advanced to the runoff election. This race has been added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee\u2019s Red to Blue program<\/a>, focused on flipping Republican seats this year.<\/p>\n

\"APTOPIX<\/p>\n

Carmen Sandoval holds her dog Peluche as she votes in the California primary election at City Hall on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in San Francisco. | Jeff Chiu, Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early results so far show that California\u2019s Democrats found success through their redistricting efforts, meant to help the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,4761,31909,149863,4797,47,115081,2803,991,40659,1748,74,81142],"class_list":["post-369724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-congressional-district","tag-james-gallagher","tag-janna-gallagher","tag-kevin-kiley","tag-los-angeles","tag-party-affiliation","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-redistricting","tag-republican-candidates","tag-republicans","tag-san-diego","tag-victor-lopez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}