Voters’ approval of Proposition 50 means Democrats might win up to five additional seats in the US House of Representatives in 2026.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has joined a lawsuit against California over the state’s redistricting effort, which was approved by a landslide in the November 4 election.
On Thursday, the Department of Justice said it would seek to overturn California’s new map of congressional districts, which was passed through a ballot initiative with approximately 64 percent support.
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“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
She accused California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, of attempting to stifle Republican voices in his state. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”
The ballot measure, known as Proposition 50, is poised to redraw the boundaries of electoral districts to favour the Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.
The proposition was designed as a counterattack against Trump’s gerrymandering in Republican states.
In Texas, for instance, the Trump White House urged the state legislature to pass new congressional districts that would allow the Republicans the opportunity to win five more seats in the House of Representatives in 2026.
In August, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the new Republican-backed map into law.
Republicans also expect to gain one seat each from new maps in Missouri and North Carolina, and potentially two more in Ohio. Civil rights advocates have argued that the new boundaries in Texas and Missouri illegally disadvantage minority communities at the ballot box.
Proposition 50 in California means that Democrats might win as many as five additional seats in the House in 2026, in an explicit attempt to offset the new Texas congressional map.
However, the California Republican Party and 19 registered voters sued the state in federal court on November 5, a day after the election was held.
They claimed California’s redistricting effort violates provisions of the US Constitution by unlawfully favouring Hispanic communities.
The Justice Department has echoed those concerns in its complaint. It argues that California’s map “manipulates district lines in the name of bolstering the voting power of Hispanic Californians because of their race”.
Tonight, California sent a powerful message to Donald Trump. We will fight for our democracy. And we will win. pic.twitter.com/tEcPlxVbi4
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) November 5, 2025
In response, Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Governor Newsom, said, “These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court.”
Newsom has emerged as a prominent Democratic critic of Trump, calling the president’s opposition to California’s ballot measure the “ramblings of an old man that knows he’s about to LOSE”.
Newsom has confirmed he will consider a White House run in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over.
California’s new district boundaries will apply for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.
Normally, congressional districts in California are drawn by an independent commission, based on the results of a national census taken every 10 years.
Proposition 50 suspends that commission’s work for the next three national elections and instead adopts a map created by the state legislatures.
In theory, electoral maps should reflect the people who live in a given state. In reality, most boundaries are rejigged by the parties in power, in a process called gerrymandering. Legislatures in many states determine how the districts are drawn.
California’s new congressional map aims to dilute Republican voters’ power, in one case by uniting rural, conservative-leaning parts of far northern California with Marin County, a famously liberal coastal stronghold across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
The Justice Department is asking a judge to prohibit California from using the new map in any future elections.