California voters went to the polls Tuesday to decide on a sweeping redistricting plan with national implications, but the campaign is shaping up to be a referendum on President Trump.
Proposition 50, a ballot measure on redrawing the state's congressional districts, was crafted by Democrats in response to Trump urging Texas and other Republican-majority states to redraw their congressional maps to favor Republicans, a move designed to maintain Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Opponents have said Proposition 50 is a power grab by Democrats that would blatantly disenfranchise Republican voters.
But his supporters, fueled by a huge war chest in deep, blue California, managed to vote out Trump and what they say are his efforts to erode democracy. The president has never been popular in California, but unprecedented months of immigration raids, tariffs and environmental rollbacks have only exacerbated the conflict.
“Trump is a very polarizing figure,” said Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at UCLA. “He inspires great loyalty on the part of one group of people and great animosity on the part of others… It is not surprising that this measure has been portrayed as being limited to Donald Trump or [California Gov.] “Gavin Newsom.”
A CNN exit poll of California voters found that about half said their vote on Proposition 50 was a way to oppose Trump.
Proposition 50 underscores how hyperpartisan California politics has become. A UC Berkeley poll conducted last week in conjunction with The Times found that more than 9 in 10 Democrats supported Proposition 50 and a similar share of Republicans opposed it.
California voters had been bombarded with television ads, emails and social media posts for weeks about the high-stakes special election, to the point that only 2% of likely voters were undecided, the survey found.
As if on cue, Trump weighed in on Proposition 50 Tuesday morning just as voting began.
“The unconstitutional vote on redistricting in California is a GIANT SCAM in the sense that the entire process, particularly the voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump said on Truth Social just minutes after polls opened across California.
The president did not provide evidence for his accusations.
Newsom dismissed the president's claims about X as “the ramblings of an old man who knows he's about to LOSE.”
At a White House briefing Tuesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed, without giving examples, that California was receiving ballots in the names of undocumented immigrants who could not legally vote.
California's top elections official, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, called Trump's accusation “another baseless claim.”
“The bottom line is that California's elections have been validated by the courts,” Weber said in a statement. “California voters will not be fooled by someone who constantly makes desperate and baseless attempts to dissuade Americans from participating in our democracy.”
More than 6.3 million Californians — 28% of the state's 23 million registered voters — had voted as of Monday, according to a vote tracker run by Democratic redistricting expert Paul Mitchell. Ballots submitted by Democrats outnumbered Republican votes on Monday, although Republican voters were believed to be more likely to vote in person on Election Day.
Disabled Army veteran Micah Corpe, 50, had a few choice words for Newsom outside a Twentynine Palms church that served as a polling place, calling the politician a “greasy used car salesman.”
Corpe, a Republican, described Proposition 50 as an effort by the governor to “do whatever he wants because he doesn't like Trump.” At the same time, he said Texas' decision to redraw its congressional districts was a necessity because of the influx of people moving there from California and other Democratic states.
“He fights [Trump] on everything,” Corpe said of Newsom. “Just give a little to get a little. That's all you have to do.”
Matt Lesenyie, an assistant professor of political science at Cal State Long Beach, said the seeds of Proposition 50 were sown when it became clear that Republicans in Congress were not going to challenge Trump in the form of an investigation or provide serious oversight.
“One of the benefits of our system is that there are controls designed there and we haven't exercised them in a long time, so I think this is a Hail Mary for potentially doing that,” he said.
Bob Rowell, 72, said that in an ideal world Proposition 50 would not be necessary. But the Trump administration's push to redraw lines in red states has created a “clear danger of creating endless Republican dominance in Congress,” he said. So Rowell, a member of the Green Party, voted in favor.
“I hope there is some way to bring us back into balance,” he said.
Robert Hamilton, 35, an architectural draftsman who lives in Twentynine Palms, sees Proposition 50 as a necessary step to roll back Trump's policies, which he says are affecting people's rights. He's proud of the role California is playing in this political moment.
“I think as a state we are doing an excellent job of trying to address some of the most egregious abuses of our freedoms,” Hamilton said outside a church where he had just voted in favor of the measure. “I hope that if this measure is successful, other states will follow suit, not necessarily taking the same steps to redistrict, but finding ways to at least hold the line while we hopefully figure things out.”
Times staff writers Seema Mehta and Katie King contributed to this report.
