Good morning. California’s Proposition 50 passed swiftly last night. Voters agreed to aggressively redraw the state’s congressional district lines. Here’s how Election Day played out, and what the results mean for the state.
Proposition 50, the only question on the statewide ballot yesterday, was overwhelmingly approved by voters. The measure was created by Democrats in a rushed response to Republican efforts to gerrymander in Texas and other red states. Now that the ballot measure has been approved, it will be easier for Democrats to flip five House seats in the state that are currently held by Republicans. Redistricting wars have spread nationwide since the summer, and the passage of new maps in California represents the first and most significant swing back in favor of Democrats.
Ballot counting in Los Angeles County was met with watchful eyes on Tuesday, following the recent announcement that the Trump administration had dispatched monitors from the Department of Justice to observe election activities. While the count has always been open to the public, the Justice Department’s election monitoring brought renewed scrutiny to the process, with political activists and elected officials appearing at the county’s ballot processing center to observe and monitor the monitors. In Orange County, the Trump administration tapped Michael Gates, a lawyer with a history of questioning the county’s voting procedures, as one of its California election observers.
In the midst of California’s Election Day, Senator Alex Padilla made an emotional announcement from the opposite coast, telling reporters at an impromptu news conference at the U.S. Capitol that he will not run for governor in 2026. Padilla, a Democrat, said he felt compelled to remain in the Senate to fight against President Trump’s agenda and its effects on California. “I choose not just to stay in the Senate, I choose to stay in this fight,” he said. Padilla was thrust into the national spotlight this summer after federal agents tackled him during a news conference about immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. The announcement caught political insiders by surprise, considering he had previously said he would wait until after Election Day to announce whether he would join next year’s governor’s race.
The sweeping approval of Proposition 50 is a win for Democrats, and perhaps for one more than any other: Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom, who said recently that he would consider a 2028 presidential run, used the measure as a means of gaining supporters across the country. Its passage has sharply lifted Newsom’s political profile, and has provided what many Democrats praised as a road map on how to fight for a party that remains adrift one year after Trump captured the White House. “It shows that he can get stuff done,” said the chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Christale Spain, who hosted Newsom on a swing through her state over the summer.
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