Proposition 50 - Authorizes Temporary Changes to Congressional District Maps in Response to Texas’ Partisan Redistricting. Legislative Constitutional Amendment
BALLOT LANGUAGE
WHAT IT MEANS
Yes
No
ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST
Yes
“Donald Trump and Texas Republicans are making an unprecedented power grab to steal congressional seats and rig the 2026 election before voting even begins.
Other Republican states are following suit. They want to steal enough seats to control Congress regardless of how the people vote.
If Californians don’t act now, Donald Trump will seize total power for two more years.
California has a duty to defend democracy. To do that, we can’t unilaterally disarm or fight with both hands tied behind our backs. When Trump tries to rig elections, we must fight back with every legal tool available.
This measure draws fair maps that represent California’s diverse communities and ensure our voices aren’t silenced by Republican gerrymandering in other states.” - Election Rigging Response Act
“California will not sit idle as Trump and his Republican lapdogs shred our country’s democracy before our very eyes. In just six months, Trump’s unchecked power has cost Americans billions and taken an ax to the greatest democracy we’ve ever known. This moment calls for urgency and action – that is what we are putting before voters this November, a chance to fight back against his anti-American ways.” - California Governor Gavin Newsom
“Trump and Texas Republicans are making an unprecedented power grab by manipulating district boundaries to steal congressional seats before voting even begins. Other GOP-controlled states are preparing to follow suit. California won’t sit on the sidelines while Republicans try to rig the system—we’re fighting back to protect our democracy." - California Democratic Party
“...This is not a fight California chose, but it’s a fight California can’t run from. Trump chose to rewrite the rules and Texas Republican leaders are all too happy to do his dirty work. We’ve seen this playbook. When Trump doesn’t have the votes to win an election, he orders others to manufacture them. Trump’s cynical ploy is rotten to its core. It is our sacred responsibility to defend the people of California and our democracy from this madness...” - Mike McGuire, California Senate President
“California Democrats will not allow Trump’s Republican Party to rig the system and take permanent control of the U.S. House of Representatives. We are prepared and we will fight fire with fire. We will do whatever it takes to defend our democracy. We will do whatever it takes to protect the voices, the votes, and the rights of every American.” - Robert Rivas, California Assembly Speaker
No
"Prop 50 Strips Away California’s Constitutional Voter Protections:
- Prop 50 will return California to an era when politicians drew safe districts for themselves that guarantee reelection...
- Prop 50 eliminates public input and transparency from the redistricting process by letting politicians secretly draw maps behind closed doors.
- Prop 50’s gerrymandered lines carve up communities across California — breaking them apart and making it harder for local communities to receive fair representation...
- Prop 50 is a slippery slope that could eliminate citizen-drawn maps entirely, handing the power to draw district lines back to career politicians...
- Prop 50 will cost California taxpayers $200 million, with local governments forced to cover the expense up front...
- Prop 50 is sponsored by the same Sacramento politicians who have crippled California with one of the nation's worst cost-of-living crises. These career politicians want to carve custom districts for themselves and partisan allies that eliminate competition — preventing voters from holding them accountable for their failed leadership." - No on Prop 50 - Protect Voters First
“Prop 50 gives politicians the power to rig congressional district maps, allowing them to elect more Democrats and stripping the voter-approved independent California Citizens Redistricting Commission of its redistricting powers.
Prop 50 is a cynical attack to give politicians the power to draw distorted districts and virtually guarantee reelection, even when they fail to do their jobs.
It is no wonder Prop 50 is sponsored by the Democrat politicians who crippled California with one of the nation’s worst cost of living crises, the highest poverty rates, the highest gasoline prices, and the highest utility costs. They are terrified that voters will hold them accountable for their failed leadership." - No on Prop 50 - Stop Sacramento's Power Grab
“First passed by voters in 2008, the current system for California election map drafting has been touted nationwide as a shining example of how states can prevent partisan gerrymandering. Nevertheless, Governor Newsom and legislative Democrats have kicked off an unprecedented maneuver to abolish the process in an attempt to increase the number of Democrats California sends to Congress.” - California Senate Republicans
“The governor and his fellow Democrats are absolutely abusing their power with this mad rush to the ballot. Two-thirds of Californians disapprove. There has been zero transparency, zero accountability and zero respect for voters. How do they argue with a straight face that they’re saving democracy when the truth is they’re trampling all over it?” - Brian Jones, California Senate Minority Leader
“..These are rigged maps, drawn in secret to give Democrat politicians more power by dismantling the independent commission Californians created to keep them out of map-drawing.
These maps shred the fair, transparent process voters demanded. The independent commission spent months gathering public input, holding 196 public meetings, hearing 3,870 verbal comments and collecting 32,410 written submissions before finalizing the current maps. Democrat politicians are throwing that work in the trash for a rigged scheme cooked up behind closed doors.” - James Gallagher, California Assembly Minority Leader
“We move forward fighting fire with fire, what happens? You burn it all down. And in this case, it affects our most fundamental American principle: representation. Wasn’t that the battle cry of our founding forebearers? ‘No taxation without representation.'” - James Gallagher, California Assembly Minority Leader
ENDORSEMENTS
Yes
FINANCIAL BACKING
The following information provides insight into the money being spent to pass or defeat the ballot measure.
Yes
CALIFORNIA PROPOSITION 50, USE OF LEGISLATIVE CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING MAP AMENDMENT (2025)
This question is on the special election ballot in California as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 4, 2025.
Committees formed to SUPPORT the "Use of Legislative Congressional Redistricting Map Amendment (2025)" are:
YES ON 50 THE ELECTION RIGGING RESPONSE ACT, GOVERNOR NEWSOM'S BALLOT MEASURE COMMITTEE
Selected Contributions TO: "Yes on 50 The Election Rigging Response Act, Governor Newsom's Ballot Measure Committee" include:
- Fund for Policy Reform (George Soros)
- House Majority PAC (HMP)
- California Teachers Association Issues PAC
- National Education Association (NEA)
- California Nurses Association
- Michael Moritz
- Dignity California SEIU Local 2015
- Consumer Attorneys of California Issues PAC
- Gwendolyn Sontheim
- Working for Working Americans Sponsored by United Brotherhood of Carpenters
- Democratic Actions, Yes on 50, Sponsored by Democratice Governors Association
- Newsom for California Governor 2022
- Reed Hastings
- Tom Steyer
PROGRESSIVE ERA ISSUES COMMITTEE SUPPORTING YES ON 50
Selected Contributions TO: "Progressive Era Issues Committee Supporting Yes on 50" include:
- Advocacy Action Fund
- California Community Foundation
- Quinn Delaney
- Karen Frances Grove Trust
- Elizabeth Allison Thomas
- Sandor Strauss
Selected Contributions TO: "Advocacy Action Fund, Inc." include:
- Eric Schmidt
- Wendy Schmidt
NEWSOM'S BALLOT MEASURE COMMITTEE; YES ON 50, THE ELECTION RIGGING RESPONSE ACT, GOVERNOR
Selected Contributions TO: "Newsom's Ballot Measure Committee; YES on 50, The Elecdtion Rigging Response Act, Governor" include:
- Fund for Policy Reform (George Soros)
- House Majority PAC (HMC)
- California Teachers Association Issues PAC
- California Nurses Association
- National Education Association (NEA)
- Michael Moritz
- Dignity California SEIU Local 2015
- Consumer Attorneys of California Issues PAC
- Gwendolyn Sontheim
- Working for Working Americans Sponsored by United Brotherhood of Carpenters
- Democratic Action, Yes on 50, Sponsored by Democratic Governors Association
- Reed Hastings
- Newsom for California
No
CALIFORNIA PROPOSITION 50, USE OF LEGISLATIVE CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING MAP AMENDMENT (2025)
This question is on the special election ballot in California as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 4, 2025.
Committees formed to OPPOSE the "Use of Legislative Congressional Redistricting Map Amendment (2025)" are:
NO ON PROP 50 - PROTECT VOTERS FIRST
Selected Contributions TO: "No on Prop 50 - Protect Voters First" include:
- Charles T Munger, Jr.
NO ON PROP 50 - STOP SACRAMENTO'S POWER GRAB
Selected Contributions TO: "No on Prop 50 - Stop Sacramento's Power Grab" include:
- No on Prop 50 Congressional Leadership Fund
- Kevin McCarthy for Congress
- Thomas M Siebel
- Ken Calvert for Congress
- Susan Groff
- Doug Lamalfa Committee
- Probity International Corp.
- Edward Lewis
- Laura Khouri
- Michael K Hayde
- Christoph Tribull
OTHER INFORMATION
Yes
No
"Today Senator Suzette Martinez Valladares (R-Santa Clarita) and Senator Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach) arrived at the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee hearing to question witnesses regarding the legislation to re-draw Congressional district lines. However, Committee Chair Sabrina Cervantes (D – Riverside) denied both Senators the right to sit on the committee, the doors that allow Senators access to the dais were locked, and Sergeants were instructed to deny their entry.
Customarily, Senators are given the right to participate in informational hearings, even when they do not serve on the committee..." - California Senate Republicans
"...a few crucial points have not been publicized. First, this special election shrinks by nearly 60% the standard 131-day period for evaluating a proposed constitutional amendment. Second, this compressed pre-election period has deprived Californians of the standard time for submitting ballot arguments or for challenging the fairness of the ballot title and summary upon which many voters rely in deciding how to vote. Third, the text of the constitutional amendment itself conceals both its content and its impact because it cryptically adopts the congressional districts “reflected in Assembly Bill 604” (which means nothing to the average voter) and then opaquely exempts those new districts from complying with any of the fair redistricting standards that the voters had enacted into the California Constitution in 2008 and 2010." - Daniel Kolkey, Former California Appellate Judge and Counsel to Gov. Pete Wilson; Draftsman of Prop 20 which established the California Citizens Redistricting Commission
Do Not Re-Gerrymander California, New York Times Opinion Guest Essay
Letter from CA Dept. of Finance requesting that $251,306,359 be allocated to CA counties to carry out the special election on redistricting
Report stating that the CA Secretary of State's office estimates their statewide cost for the special election on redistricting to be $31.3 million
Additional cost to special election for mailers correcting error in initial voter guides sent by state
