Ballots are arriving in mailboxes across California for the upcoming Nov. 4 special election that has launched the Golden State into the center of a national battle over control of Congress.
The only issue on most Bay Area voters’ ballots is Proposition 50, a measure to redraw California’s congressional maps.
Here’s an explanation of Prop 50, a rundown of who supports and opposes it and what arguments both sides are making to win over voters, along with links to read more about the issue.
What would Prop 50 do?
Prop 50 would replace California’s congressional maps, drawn by an independent commission, with new maps drawn by Democrats that aim to flip five seats from Republican to Democratic control. They are designed to help Democrats wrest control of the U.S. House of Representatives to provide a check on President Donald Trump, and to counter moves by Republican-controlled states that are redrawing their own maps to favor Republicans. The maps would be in place for elections in 2026, 2028 and 2030. California’s independent redistricting commission would resume drawing congressional maps following the 2030 census.
Why is there a special election for Prop 50?
Prop 50 is one component of a nationwide redistricting battle that began when the Trump administration started pressuring lawmakers in Texas to redraw their maps.
Mid-decade redistricting is rare. States typically redraw their congressional maps every 10 years after each census. But Republicans are under pressure this year to make maps more favorable to their party in the 2026 midterms.
Republicans hold 219 seats in the House, compared with Democrats’ 213. But that majority will be tough for the GOP to hold in the midterms, when a president’s party typically loses seats.
Republicans hold 25 of the 38 congressional districts in Texas, the second most populous state. The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature passed new maps this year that are designed to increase the number of Republican districts to 30.
In California, the most populous state, Democrats hold 43 of 52 congressional seats. Democrats also control California’s state Legislature. But, unlike Republicans in Texas, California Democrats can’t just pass new maps on their own.
That’s because California voters in 2010 gave that power to an independent redistricting commission where Democrats and Republicans are equally represented.
To get around that process, Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies called a special election to seek voter approval of the new maps.
Who supports Prop 50, and why?
Supporters argue Californians should vote yes to provide a check on Trump’s power. With a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Senate and a Supreme Court dominated by conservatives, Trump has been able to dramatically reshape the federal government without any real pushback from Democrats.
“If we lose here, we are going to have total Republican control in the House, the Senate and the White House for at least two more years,” Newsom wrote in a recent fundraising appeal to supporters. “If we win here, we can put a check on Trump for his final two years.”
Supporters have raised more than $90 million from a base of donors 500 times larger than opponents’. The campaign has reported more than 65,000 individual donors, the vast majority of whom have given less than $150. But the campaign has some ultra-wealthy donors, too. The biggest are the Fund for Policy Reform, an organization founded and funded by Democratic megadonor George Soros, and the House Majority PAC, which works to elect Democrats to Congress. Each has given $10 million. Other top donors to the effort include labor unions. The National Education Association and the California Teachers Association have each contributed $3 million, and the California Nurses Association has kicked in $2.6 million.
Michael Moritz, the 71-year-old billionaire Pacific Heights venture capitalist and publisher of the San Francisco Standard, has contributed $2.5 million.
Newsom’s campaign has spent about $7 million on digital advertising and about $18 million on television ads, according to the most recent campaign finance filings.
The campaign is focused on an anti-Trump message and is running ads featuring national political figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
That reflects the nationalized nature of the campaign. Almost half of the campaign’s donors live outside the state.
Who opposes Prop 50, and why?
Opponents have focused less on national politics. They point out that the measure would take power from the independent commission and put it back in the hands of politicians. They argue that gerrymandering – the process of shaping districts to favor a particular politician or political party – is always wrong and shouldn’t be embraced in California. They’ve pointed out that the proposed districts are designed to dilute the power of rural communities that typically vote for Republicans.
Most of the opponents’ cash has come from Charles Munger Jr., who has given $32 million of the total $40 million raised. Munger is a retired Palo Alto physicist and son of billionaire Charles Munger, who served as the vice chairman of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. More than a decade ago, Munger Jr. bankrolled the campaigns to create the independent redistricting commission and give it power to draw the state’s political districts.
