Proposition 50 passes in victory for Gavin Newsom and California Democrats

Proposition 50 cruised to victory on election night, handing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies a victory and setting the stage for a showdown with President Donald Trump and the national Republican Party in the 2026 midterm elections.

Proposition 50 asked California voters to temporarily replace the state’s congressional districts, drawn by a politically-independent commission, with new maps designed to elect more Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives. The plan tosses the political maps that divvy up California’s 52 seats in the House.

The Associated Press called the win for Prop. 50 at 8 p.m. as voting closed.

In local races, early returns suggested that Santa Clara County voters were on track to approve Measure A, a sales tax increase. In the county assessor’s race, Los Altos Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor had a strong lead over her competitors. Saratoga Councilmember Rishi Kumar trailed behind her, followed closely by Saratoga Councilmember Yan Zhao and East Side Union High School District Trustee Bryan Do.

And early results showed well above the majority of voters approving Measure B, an East Bay parcel tax to fund equipment, facility and technology improvements in a local hospital district.

California Democrats led by Newsom placed Proposition 50 on the November ballot after Trump directed Republican-led states, including Texas, to boost their party in the 2026 midterm elections by drawing new, partisan political maps. In California, Proposition 50 was the only statewide measure that appeared on the ballots of all voters in the November special election.

Democrats from Newsom to Rep. Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama pitched the gerrymandering plan as way for voters to stand up to Trump and defend democracy.

That argument resonated with Catrina Rivera, 62, who lives in Fremont and voted for Proposition 50. Rivera said she doesn’t like the idea of redistricting, but her distaste for Trump and Republicans won over.

“These people are getting away with murder,” she said.

Not all voters were convinced. Jim Nelson, a Republican who lives in Fremont, voted against Proposition 50 on Election Day at the Veterans’ Memorial Building.

“I don’t think that the state on a whim should change the rules any way they want,” Nelson said.

Democrats currently hold all but nine of California’s House seats. The Bay Area would not see major changes under the new maps, which flush more Democratic voters into districts in Southern California, the Central Valley and elsewhere in Northern California, targeting five seats that Republicans hold.

The measure hands Democrats more power in California and has helped raised the profile of Newsom. The governor is term-limited in 2027 and has said he’s considering running for president in 2028. Early polls have shown that he is a possible contender.

Newsom certainly flexed his fundraising prowess with the fast-paced campaign for Prop. 50. Since August, when California state lawmakers placed the measure on the November ballot, Democrats dominated an opposition that appeared fractured and under-resourced by comparison. Democrats raised $122 million to opponents’ $44 million, fueled by small donations from throughout the U.S. but also big checks from the campaign arm of the national Democratic Party and billionaires Tom Steyer and George Soros.

“What a night for the Democratic Party,” Newsom told reporters on election night.

The governor cast Prop. 50’s passage as defeat for Trump, whom he said has failed in his promises to make the country “healthier” and “wealthier,” and will face the wrath of voters in the 2026 midterms.

“​​Why else is he trying to rig the midterm elections before one single vote is even cast? He understands his position at this moment,” the governor said.

Corrin Rankin, chair of the California Republican Party, said Prop. 50 is a travesty for the state’s independent redistricting process. The state redistricting commission balances power between Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters. That’s the “gold standard” and should be emulated by other states, Rankin said. But “in one fell swoop, political insiders grab the power away from the people.”

The main opponents of Prop. 50 were California Republican officials, rallied behind the scenes by former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and California megadonor Charles Munger Jr., who is the son of a late Berkshire Hathaway executive. Former California Republican Party Chair Jessica Millan Patterson teamed up with McCarthy. They cast Prop. 50 as a “power grab” by Newsom and Democrats.

Munger, who bankrolled campaigns to enshrine independent redistricting more than a decade ago, took a different approach. This year, he spent more than $30 million in a bid to block Proposition 50 — largely by papering homes with political mailers declaring the measure a threat to democracy.

“Gerrymandering is wrong, no matter who does it,” one mailer read.

Whether Prop. 50 will influence the 2026 midterm elections — a critical juncture for Trump and Republicans who control both chambers of Congress, and have aggressively moved to reform government and the economy — remains to be seen.

Lawmakers in other states, Republican and Democratic alike, are considering redistricting before the midterms as well. Where maps are tossed out and replaced — and how — will recast the 2026 election.

Santa Clara County Measure A would raise the local sales tax rate by 0.625% and is expected to generate $330 million annually. County supervisors have cast the tax increase as unfortunate but necessary to shore up the county’s enormous health care system as they face roughly $1 billion in lost federal revenues annually from proposed health care cuts by Trump and Republicans. Opponents, though, say taxes are already too high locally, and an increase would put Campbell, Milpitas and San Jose at a 10% sales tax rate or higher. As a general sales tax, it needed a simple majority to pass.

Santa Clara County also was seeing its first open race for assessor for the first time in more than three decades. Larry Stone, who was first elected to the post in 1994, stepped down earlier this year from the job of determining the value of taxable property in the county. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, the two leading candidates will compete in a December runoff.

In Alameda County, the Measure B parcel tax would generate $13 million annually over the next 12 years for Washington Township Health Care District, a special district that includes the cities of Fremont, Newark and Union City, as well as parts of Hayward and Sunol. It faced no organized opposition and needed a simple majority to pass.