California Governor Gavin Newsom’s landslide victory could tip the balance of power in Congress in favor of Democrats.
Published November 5, 2025
California has passed a ballot measure that would redraw district lines to favor Democrats in next year’s crucial midterm elections, in response to President Donald Trump’s gerrymandering in Republican states.
Early results from Tuesday’s vote showed voters approved Proposition 50 by a 2-1 margin, seen as a landslide victory for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, increasing the party’s chances of gaining control of the U.S. Congress at the polls next year, thus blocking Trump’s policies.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Approval of the bill means Democrats could gain up to five more seats in the House, offsetting the five seats Texas Republicans are seeking to gain after President Trump urged them to redraw their own maps. Republicans also expect to pick up one new seat each in Missouri and North Carolina, and potentially pick up two more seats in Ohio.
President Trump reacted angrily to Newsom’s blowback. “California’s unconstitutional redistricting vote is a colossal fraud in that the entire process, especially the vote itself, is rigged,” he wrote on his social media site Truth Social on Tuesday.
Newsom, who is betting his Democratic leadership on standing up to Trump in the 2028 presidential election, hit back at the Republican response, describing it as “the ramblings of an old man who knows he’s going to lose.” After his victory, Mr. X said voters had sent Mr. Trump a “powerful message.”
Tonight, California sent a powerful message to Donald Trump. We fight for democracy. And we will win. pic.twitter.com/tEcPlxVbi4
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) November 5, 2025
The new district boundaries will apply to the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections. Electoral maps are typically drawn by an independent commission after the decennial census, so they reflect the people who live there. In reality, most boundaries are changed by the political party in power.
The redistricting is aimed at weakening the power of Republican voters, in one case by consolidating rural, conservative-leaning areas in California’s far north with Marin County, a well-known liberal coastal stronghold just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
Newsom had sought to nationalize the campaign, arguing the proposal was a way to counter President Trump’s efforts to erode democracy. A televised campaign video showed Trump, enraged after watching the results on TV, throwing french fries at the TV.
Former President Barack Obama fully supported this movement. “Republicans are trying to rig the next election and steal enough seats in Congress to give them two more years of unlimited power,” he said in one ad. “We can stop the Republican movement.”
Critics said two wrongs do not make a right. They appealed to Californians to reject the so-called Democratic power grab, even if they were concerned about President Trump’s moves in the Republican-led state.
Among the most prominent critics was former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who oversaw the creation of independent commissions approved in 2008 and 2010.
Schwarzenegger claimed the proposal would “take power away from the people.”
