LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 California voters approved new congressional district boundaries Tuesday, delivering a victory for Democrats in the state-by-state redistricting battle that will help determine which party wins control of the U.S. House in 2026 and, with it, the power to thwart or advance President Donald Trump\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n
The approval of Proposition 50 gives Democrats a shot at winning as many as five additional seats, just enough to blunt Texas Republicans\u2019 move to redraw their own maps to pick up five GOP seats at Trump\u2019s urging. Texas\u2019 move and California\u2019s response have kicked off a flurry of redistricting efforts around the country, with Republican states appearing to have an edge. Deeply blue California is Democrats\u2019 best opportunity to make up seats.<\/p>\n
Midterm elections typically punish the party in the White House, and Trump is fighting to maintain his party\u2019s slim House majority. Republicans hold 219 seats to Democrats\u2019 213.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s results mark a political victory for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cast the measure as an essential tool to fight back against Trump and protect American democracy.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters in Sacramento, Newsom cast the California vote as part of a broader national rejection of Trump\u2019s policies that saw Democratic governors elevated in New Jersey and Virginia. But he warned the more consequential battle would come next year.<\/p>\n
If Democrats win the House majority, they can \u201cend Donald Trump\u2019s presidency as we know it,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cIt is all on the line, a bright line, in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Measure supported by Newsom and Obama<\/p>\n
California\u2019s Proposition 50 asked voters to suspend House maps drawn by an independent commission and replace them with rejiggered districts adopted by the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Those new districts would be in place for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.<\/p>\n
The recast districts aim to dilute Republican voters\u2019 power, in one case by uniting rural, conservative-leaning parts of far northern California with Marin County, a famously liberal coastal stronghold across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.<\/p>\n
The measure was spearheaded by Newsom, who threw the weight of his political operation behind it in a major test of his mettle ahead of a potential 2028 presidential campaign. Former President Barack Obama urged voters to pass it as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,\u201d Obama said in one ad. \u201cYou can stop Republicans in their tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Critics said two wrongs don\u2019t make a right. They urged Californians to reject the measure, even if they have misgivings about Trump\u2019s moves elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Among the most prominent critics was Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star and former Republican governor who pushed for the creation of the independent commission, which voters approved in 2008 and 2010. It makes no sense to fight Trump by becoming him, Schwarzenegger said in September, arguing that the proposal would \u201ctake the power away from the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want Newsom to have control,\u201d said Rebecca Fleshman, a 63-year-old retired medical assistant from Southern California, who voted against the measure. \u201cI don\u2019t want the state to be blue. I want it to be red.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lopsided campaign foreshadowed the vote<\/p>\n
After an early burst of TV advertising, opponents of the plan struggled to raise cash in a state with some of the nation\u2019s most expensive media markets.<\/p>\n
The campaign followed an unusual trajectory. A handful of Republican congressmen who will see their districts dramatically reshaped \u2013 and their jobs endangered \u2014 mostly stayed away from the campaign spotlight. With opponents short on cash, Newsom and his supporters dominated TV screens in the critical closing weeks.<\/p>\n
Total spending on broadcast and cable ads topped $100 million, with more than two-thirds of it coming from supporters. Newsom told people to stop donating in the race\u2019s final weeks.<\/p>\n
The GOP congressmen \u2014 Reps. Ken Calvert, Darrell Issa, Kevin Kiley, David Valadao and Doug LaMalfa \u2014 will see right-leaning voters reduced and left-leaning voters boosted in their respective districts in a shift that would make it likely a Democratic candidate would prevail in each race.<\/p>\n
Issa issued a defiant statement, saying: \u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere. I\u2019ll continue to represent the people of California regardless of their party or where they live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calvert said Newsom engineered a \u201cpower grab\u201d while housing costs, gas prices and taxes continue to strain family budgets. \u201cI am determined to keep fighting for the families I represent,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n
AP poll finds voters motivated by political reasons<\/p>\n
Proposition 50 won a swift and decisive victory, as the AP declared a winner when polls closed statewide. Early returns were strongly in favor of the measure, as were preliminary results from the AP Voter Poll, an expansive survey of more than 4,000 voters in California.<\/p>\n
Roughly 7 in 10 California voters said party control of Congress was \u201cvery important\u201d to them, and those voters overwhelmingly supported the measure, according to the AP Voter Poll.<\/p>\n
About 8 in 10 California voters who supported the ballot measure said it was necessary to counter the changes made by Republicans in other states, while only about 2 in 10 said they supported it because it was the best way to draw maps, AP Voter Poll found.<\/p>\n
Trump, who overwhelmingly lost California in his three presidential campaigns, largely stayed out of the fray. A week before the election, he urged voters in a social media post not to vote early or by mail \u2014 messaging that conflicted with that of top Republicans in the state who urged people to get their ballots in as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
In a post Tuesday on his social media platform, the president called the state\u2019s voting process \u201cRIGGED\u201d and warned that it was \u201cunder very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!\u201d Secretary of State Shirley Weber called that \u201canother baseless claim.\u201d<\/p>\n
The national House map is in flux<\/p>\n
Congressional district boundaries are typically redrawn every 10 years to reflect population shifts documented in the census. Mid-decade redistricting is unusual, absent a court order finding fault with the maps in place.<\/p>\n
Beyond Texas, Republicans expect to gain one seat each from new maps in Missouri and North Carolina, and potentially two more in Ohio. Five other GOP-led states are also considering new maps: Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska.<\/p>\n
On the Democratic side, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Virginia have proposals to redraw maps, but major hurdles remain.<\/p>\n
A court has ordered new boundaries be drawn in Utah, where all four House districts are represented by Republicans, but it remains to be seen if the state will approve a map that makes any of them winnable for Democrats.<\/p>\n
Siddhartha Deb, 52, has lived in the U.S. since he was 7 years old but he just became a citizen Tuesday. Immediately afterward he registered to vote at San Francisco City Hall and cast his ballot in favor of Newsom\u2019s measure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like the way the Republican Party is basically trying to rig elections by gerrymandering,\u201d Deb said. \u201cAnd this is the only way, to fight fire with fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Cooper reported from Phoenix and Nguyen from Sacramento, California. Associated Press writers Amy Taxin in Norco, California, and Terry Chea in San Francisco contributed.<\/p>\n
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