With Prop. 50 victory, ‘the fight goes on,’ Newsom says

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s victory lap was brief Election Night after voters passed Proposition 50, Democrats’ plan to gerrymander the state, in a landslide.

With a heavily-funded campaign, Newsom and his party’s national leaders managed to convince California voters that Proposition 50 was a way to take a stand against President Donald Trump — a president, they said, who is trying to “rig” the 2026 midterm elections by urging similar moves in Republican-led states.

Newsom has used the ballot measure to elevate his national profile and raise millions of dollars in contributions as he plans a possible run for president in 2028.

But in comments to reporters on Tuesday night, Newsom described the ballot measure as just one battle in the national war over redistricting before the midterms. The Republican effort is still in full swing, he said. Officials in GOP-led North Carolina, Missouri and Texas have already re-drawn U.S. House of Representatives districts to benefit their party. Newsom called on his Democratic allies in other states to follow suit.

“We need the state of Virginia. We need the state of Maryland. We need our friends in New York and Illinois and Colorado,” the governor said. By retaking the House, he said, “we can de facto end Donald Trump’s presidency as we know it.”

Newsom’s political opponents agree on the stakes. In a Wednesday news conference, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said the “radical element of the Democratic Party” will “try to end the Trump administration” if they win back control of the House next year.

“He won’t have four years, he’ll only have two,” Johnson said of Trump.

The passage of Proposition 50 and Democratic victories in New York City, Virginia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on Tuesday teed up  what is sure to be a hard-fought midterm election next year. And for the first time since Trump’s resounding victory in 2024, Newsom and other Democrats say they have wind in their sails.

Menlo College political scientist Melissa Michelson said it’s looking more likely that Democrats will take control of the House next year. Results last night showed widespread dissatisfaction with the leadership of Trump and Republicans, she said. Democrats could prevail “in that environment, if Trump continues to be as unpopular as he is now,” Michelson said.

In fact, the redistricting battles in other states mean that the House is up for grabs, she said. According to CNN, Republicans in other states have targeted nine additional seats with their gerrymandering plans. So far, Democrats have redrawn maps in a bid to pick up only five more seats — all in California, via Proposition 50.

Gerrymandering could have a downside: diluting “safe” House districts by moving voters elsewhere, Michelson said.

“It’s a dangerous game to play to try to choose their voters in advance and try to predict what they’re going to do,” Michelson said.

That has played out in other states and thwarted both parties long before Trump kicked off the redistricting battles this summer. When Democrats in Oregon gerrymandered the state’s six House districts in 2020, they created a battleground district in the center of the state that a Republican won two years later. Democrats managed to claw that seat back in 2024 only by a tight margin, in one of the most expensive House races in the country that year.

Whether California’s Proposition 50 does in fact boost Democrats in 2026 remains to be seen. California Republicans on Wednesday filed a legal challenge of the measure, arguing that it violates the U.S. Constitution by drawing new political boundaries “specifically to favor Hispanic voters.” Earlier Republican legal challenges to the measure haven’t been successful.

What’s more obvious, political insiders said, is that the campaign was good for Newsom — a famously ambitious politician who has officially admitted that he’s considering a run for president in 2028. The governor is term limited and will leave office in January 2027.

“It already vaulted him into the top tier of 2028 presidential candidates, which is ultimately what this was all about,” said Steven Maviglio, a Democratic consultant based in the Sacramento area.

“He made it a national issue so he could attract national money,” Maviglio said. “And he was successful at that.”

As of Oct. 18, the most recent campaign finance filing, Newsom’s “Yes on 50” political committee had hauled in more than $114 million. Fueled by the governor’s relentless emails and appeals on social media, as well as the testimonies of former President Barack Obama and other star Democrats, millions of small donations poured in from throughout the U.S. Billionaires, including Tom Steyer and George Soros, also cut big checks.

In mid-October, that committee still held $37 million. Newsom took the unusual step of asking donors to close their wallets shortly after, telling them that he already had raised enough to pass Proposition 50.

It was not immediately clear how Newsom and Democratic Party officials can spend the remaining amount in the committee. The state Fair Political Practices Commission was unable to say Wednesday.

Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego, said he’s “pretty clear” that Newsom would not be able to use those funds to run for president.

Regardless, Kousser said Proposition 50 demonstrated something more valuable for Newsom: his ability to raise oodles of cash from Democratic Party faithful throughout the U.S., on short notice, and build early momentum for a presidential bid.

“That’s an asset worth more than $37 million,” the professor said.