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California voters are already casting ballots in what is likely the most important contest of 2025, one that will play a substantial role in deciding which party controls the U.S. House for the last two years of President Donald Trump's time in office.
And many are frustrated, angry and wanting to push back against President Donald Trump or Gov. Gavin Newsom − from the rural, Republican North State to liberal enclaves along California's coast − with just weeks to go before the consequential Nov. 4 election.
Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House and historically, the party that controls the White House fares poorly in midterm elections.
A Trump-friendly U.S. House could allow the president to continue one of the most aggressive and disruptive agendas in modern presidential history, while a Democratic majority opens the door to congressional investigations, legislative paralysis − even a third Trump impeachment.
California's Prop. 50 seeks to let the legislature redraw the state's congressional districts through 2030 to create five more seats favorable to Democrats. The map is already complete and public.
Passing the proposition could essentially negate the five new Republican-leaning congressional districts Texas created earlier this year at Trump's urging. Similar actions by Republicans in Indiana, Missouri and Ohio and Democrats in Illinois, Maryland and New York are under consideration. Most recently, Republicans in North Carolina are making their own redistricting push.
The fight over Prop. 50, which is expected to cost $282.6 million in taxpayer funds, according to the California Department of Finance, is already one of the most expensive ballot fights in state history.
As of Oct. 7, state data show campaigns in support of Prop. 50 have so far raised $127.5 million. Those fighting it have so far raised $78 million.
And big names like former President Barack Obama are urging Californians to act.
"California the whole nation is counting on you," Obama says in an ad. "Prop. 50 puts our elections back on a level playing field, preserves independent redistricting over the long term, and lets the people decide."
'Really puts voters in a difficult situation'
Unlike Texas, though, California's constitution requires district boundaries to be drawn by a nonpartisan commission. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking voters to approve Prop. 50 and waive that requirement to give Democrats a better chance of reclaiming the House. The commission would resume drawing the boundaries after the 2030 census.
Californians are proud of the commission, but also overwhelming disapprove of Trump and fear for the future of the country, said Mark Baldassare, survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California and a leading expert on California voter opinion.
"My sense is that this really puts voters in a difficult situation where there is a policy which the voters passed, which they feel relatively good about, but they don't feel very good about what's going on right now," he said.
California voters have a history of revisiting constitutional amendments, and passing temporary measures when needed. They also tend to vote in large numbers for special elections, he said.
The ballot language specifically mentions Texas, states that the change is temporary and lays out how long it will be in effect and what will happen after.
“If the word temporary wasn't in there, it might be a different situation,” he said.
He said turnout could come down to how much do voters want to be part of history.
“People recognize that what they're voting on not only has implications for the state, but it has implications for the nation,” he said. “Voters know that and they want to be part of history.”
USA TODAY Network reporters asked voters across California what they think of the move. With the Prop. 50 campaign entering its final stretches, many of their responses highlight California's own political divide between coastal and inland areas.
North State
Three days after ballots went out to Shasta County, California voters in the mail, Bob Braz took a day off from work at the fishing bait shop he owns to lead a one-man protest against Prop. 50.
Early on a Thursday, as morning commuters whizzed along busy Cypress Avenue, Braz held his homemade sign in front of Redding City Hall: "Redistrict Calif. #50 No!"
"I voted no because I think Gov. Gavin Newsom is breaking the law, the California Constitution," Braz said. "It's illegal for him to do it."
The 73-year-old Redding resident said that in his opinion, Newsom "is just doing it to try and redistrict California so he can get five more Marxist seats in Congress," which Braz said would give the California governor "a better advantage when he runs against Trump in 2028."
The constitution bans President Donald Trump from a third term.
Braz said he's also worried what the new district lines would mean for U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican who has handily won elections to represent the area since 2012.
Behavioral health worker Kim Mathews dropped off her ballot at the elections office in downtown Redding. She voted no.
"We're a rural area and I do not feel that it is fair to allow other people (to make) those decisions for our small area. I know a lot of the people in Southern California are wanting it, but I don't feel that it's fair for us folks here in Northern California," she said.
Deep red Northern California, a carpet of forest bordering Oregon often called the North State, would stretch to the San Francisco Bay area.
Mathews said she was "kind of annoyed" at having the question on the ballot at all.
"I'm hoping, hoping, hoping that it doesn't pass," she said.
As for Newsom, Mathews said, "I don't think a lot of people in this area, Shasta County, are really excited for Gavin Newsom to be pushing this agenda. I just think he's playing the political game and just trying to run for president, eventually."
Renee Ashe, a retiree, said she voted no on redistricting, too, "because I think it should be up to a committee, not Sacramento telling us that's the best way to go."
Ashe said lawmakers and Newsom rushed to bring the proposition to voters, and spent too much money on a special election
"We need cops, we need other resources, firemen," she said. "We need help in other ways in this state. Not through spending the money like that."
Bay Area
A few days into early voting, residents trickled into San Francisco's ornate City Hall, passing newly married couples posing for photos on a marble staircase before descending to a basement voting site that was mostly deserted. San Francisco and the surrounding Bay area have been Democratic strongholds for decades.
Michael Stephens, 70, a retired lawyer who worked as a public defender in South Carolina before relocating to California to be closer to his children, cast his ballot in favor of Prop. 50.
Trump’s actions and statements have left him worried about the future for his young grandchildren, he said.
“It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” Stephens said in his South Carolina drawl. “Sending troops to our cities. Vilifying people.” That’s on top of stacking the election deck by asking Texas lawmakers to gerrymander districts to keep control of the House in the 2026 midterms, he said.
Normally, Stephens said he wouldn’t support a plan to “cheat to beat the cheater.” But he said the stakes were too high not to embrace Prop. 50.
“We might never get the chance to vote again if we don’t do something,” he said. “Desperate times, desperate measures.”
Stephens welcomes Newsom’s more aggressive tactics. He said they were overdue after gentler approaches failed.
“He's an ol’ slick politician,” he said, laughing. “But I think he's got a good heart. And I think it’s time somebody stood up to Trump.”
Across town, in San Francisco’s Sunset District, Barry Hermanson agreed with Stephens about the threat Trump poses to the county.
“The specter of this authoritarianism that is moving forward – I mean, troops in our cities – unbelievable,” said Hermanson, a former employment service owner.
But the 74-year-old Green Party member and unsuccessful congressional candidate, is adamant about voting against Prop. 50.
Hermanson said the costly ballot measure isn’t necessary because he believes the 2026 midterms will wipe away Republicans’ narrow House majority, even if several other states gerrymander seats in favor of the GOP.
“I do have faith in the average voter to be stepping up and saying, ‘No’,” he said. “I have some Republican friends who look at this and go, ‘Oh, geez, this isn't who we are.’ So I really think that the midterm election is going to be a watershed moment for American democracy.”
And he argued that if Trump tries to deny losing the election results as he has in the past, or too many Americans shrug and don’t vote in the midterms, a troubling new chapter may begin.
“Five seats, that ain't going to mean anything if people sit back and say, ‘Oh well, I think I'll just stay home,’ he said.
About 70 miles south of San Francisco in the university and surfside city of Santa Cruz, Susan Hughmanick dropped her ballot in a metal dropbox outside the Santa Cruz County Governmental Center. Hughmanick, a physician, said she voted in favor of Prop. 50.
“What Trump asked the governor of Texas to do is outrageous, although every day he does something outrageous,” she said. “So I think we can't sit down and be like Michelle Obama said, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ It's time to get down and dirty.”
Asking California voters to decide was a good idea, she said. But she wondered if it might take more people being directly impacted by Trump’s policies before more people “get really mad” and turn out in bigger numbers. She said younger voters seem less passionate about the Nov. 4 vote.
“It worries me that the young people are just busy in their lives, and not thinking about the big picture,” she said.
In San Mateo County, April Vargas said she is hell-bent on making sure Prop. 50 passes.
Vargas, 75, a local interior design business owner from Montera, said she’s so determined to help as many people as possible register and vote on Nov. 4 in part because of immigration enforcement that has include the arrest and detainment of American citizens.
“It’s only going to get more extreme until everyone rises up with one voice and says, ‘No more!’ That’s why Prop. 50 is so important, and why I’ll be standing on street corners, making phone calls, and talking to others about what’s happening," Vargas said. “This is a moment in our nation’s history that we just can’t sleep on."
Nick Gonzalez, 27, a third-year student at the University of California College of Law, San Francisco, believes democracy is at stake. Even though Prop. 50 is “a temporary redistricting chess move,” he thinks its impact would alter the American political landscape forever.
“If we don’t take action to rebalance the powers that be in Washington DC, then we risk essentially losing the country and also putting the Constitution at risk,” Gonzalez said.
He’s praying that Prop. 50 passes.
“Every single vote counts. There’s so much on the line when it comes to ensuring the power is not rigged in Washington,” Gonzalez said. “Prop. 50 doesn’t guarantee a Democratic Congress, but it gives us a fighting chance.”
Central Valley
Although Gregory Hagopian, 45, a criminal law attorney in Visalia, has some reservations about Prop. 50, he understands why it is on the ballot.
“We already know that other states have gerrymandered their districts unfairly to stack Republicans in the national legislature,” he said. “What California has said is, ‘We'll do the same thing to even things out.’ So, yes, it's a dangerous thing to do, but the gauntlet's been thrown down by the other side already.”
Hagopian “absolutely” sees the ballot measure as a referendum on Trump.
“The issue here is a national legislature that would have ability and willingness to rein the Trump administration in,” he said. “Many people, including me, are afraid these days. We’re afraid because the current president has shown every indication that he wants to be a dictator, and the Republican-controlled Congress has shown no indication that they ever intend to ever rein him in.
“Prop. 50 is designed to get a Democrat majority back in at least one house of Congress, because, and I’m very serious when I say this, that might be the only thing that keeps elections happening at all,” he added.
Retired Visalia businessman Johnny George, 90, said he plans to vote no.
“Anything that Newsom wants, I don't want,” he explained. “I will vote, but I will vote with good common sense. I will not vote like a Democrat that doesn't know what the hell they're doing.”
April Treona Lancaster, 42, a small business owner in Visalia, plans to vote in the Nov. 4 special election despite the precedent the election may set.
“I think that we are in a worrisome and troublesome political time right now,” she said, “And while I am concerned about the precedent it sets, I think that there are a lot of concerning precedents being set right now. Sometimes you have to meet the moment.”
San Joaquin County has particularly high-stakes in the election's outcome. Passing the proposition could result in the county being divided into five congressional districts. It is currently represented by two Democrats.
David Diskin, 47, of Lodi, said he and his family's ballots were on their coffee table and that they intend to vote yes on Prop. 50.
"I'm thrilled that we have the opportunity to vote on it, unlike Texas," Diskin said. "We get to make this constitutional amendment, and if enough people are in support of it, it will happen. If not, then that's really bad for our democracy, but at least it was a democratic process."
Diskin said "absolutely adores and appreciates" the commission that was formed more than 15 years ago, but times have changed since then.
Community activist Barbara St. Urbain, 83, of Stockton, said she voted yes.
"I'm very concerned about what's going on in our country," St. Urbain said. "Well, concerned is a very nice way of putting it. I'm very scared about what's happening to our democracy. Texas did a redistricting of the state so that they would have more Republican representatives in the House. This is a counterbalance to that."
While St. Urbain believes Prop. 50 is necessary to preserve democracy, she said she is dissatisfied with how much the special election is costing taxpayers.
"I'm not thrilled with how much it's costing," St. Urbain said. "However, I don't know that there's a cost to our democracy. This is the only way that we could respond."
Coachella Valley
As ballots arrived in the mail, some voters in the Coachella Valley, a desert area 100 miles east of Los Angeles that includes Palm Springs, were torn. Several said they typically wouldn’t support politically motivated redrawing of maps, but see the proposition as the best way to fight back against the Trump administration.
“I oppose gerrymandering, but I oppose it less than I oppose Trump,” said John Rhodes, an 88-year-old retired chemical engineer, after he dropped his ballot at Palm Springs City Hall. “I think (Newsom) is trying to do the best he can.”
Some voters said they were excited at the prospect of removing U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert, a GOP congressman who’s represented parts of Southern California since 1993. Calvert won competitive races in his swing district in 2022 and 2024, but that district, which includes Palm Springs, would be carved up under Prop. 50’s new boundaries.
The Palm Springs area has a large and influential LGBTQ community, and some members of it said they were voting yes in part because of fears about the potential rollback of LGTBQ rights at the federal level.
Outside of Palm Desert City Hall, Doris Olivera and Linda Quigley, a retired married couple living in Palm Desert, said they saw voting for Prop. 50 as their only outlet to push back against Trump in Washington.
“We’re very scared,” Olivera, 73, said. “It’s like, we want to go back into the closet, but we’re too old for that, and we’ve fought too long and too hard.”
Others in Palm Springs were more skeptical and called the special election a waste of money and worried about how the new maps don't truly reflect the political make up of the Golden State.
The new lines would result in just four Republican leaning seats out of the state’s 52 congressional seats. Republicans make up about 25% of the state’s registered voters.
SoCal
Daniel Alcozar stood in the corner of a mostly empty Ventura voting center and cast his ballot in favor of Prop. 50.
Alcozar, 77, said he worries Trump is using gerrymandering in Texas and elsewhere to manipulate the election process. He thinks the tactic could dilute his vote.
“What happens to the little guys like us?” he asked. “We’re out of the loop.”
The early voting center, the first to open in Ventura County for the Nov. 4 election, saw 11 voters on its first day and 11 more the next. John Harrod, a 72-year-old retired machinist, sat in a courtyard at the government center, waiting to take his wife to lunch after her morning session as a prospective juror.
They live in Simi Valley, the one city in Ventura County where a majority of voters supported Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Harrod, a Trump supporter, said he planned to cast his ballot against the redistricting measure.
“It’s a way for them to get more seats,” Harrod said of the Democrats. He worries the proposition, if successful, would push Simi Valley into a different congressional district.
“Keep the district the way it is,” he said.
Eddie Alamillo, a county mosquito-control worker, cast his vote at 8 a.m. at the Ventura voting center. He chose paper ballot over a touch screen to make sure no one can question that the vote in favor of the proposition is his.
He sees his vote as a way to counter Texas redistricting.
“This wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for that,” he said, noting California’s proposal will be decided by a vote of the people. “The system is rigged in Texas, and that is dead wrong.”
Bailey St. Louis, 30, of Oxnard, didn’t vote in the 2024 presidential election and is determined to cast a ballot in the special election even though she knows nothing about the proposal aside from a YouTube ad in support of the measure.
“It’s my civic duty,” she said.
If she decides the election is a referendum on Trump once she's done her research, she’ll likely vote for the proposition.
“Anything against Trump would be the vote,” she said.
Portia Wofford, a 45-year-old nurse in Los Angeles, said she is a registered Republican but will vote yes on Prop. 50, primarily because Newson is pushing for it.
“I love his swagger, his look, his demeanor, everything about Gavin Newsom,’’ she said.
Also, Wofford said she thinks it’s fair for California to respond to redistricting in Texas.
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,’’ Wofford said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California redistricting fight has voters pushing back - against Trump and Newsom
Reporting by Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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