Prop. 50 Passes In California: Rebuke Of Trump, Victory For Newsom

California's Proposition 50, the lone measure in Tuesday's Statewide Special Election, has passed, the Associated Press and New York Times projected, mere minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. in the Golden State.

"Tonight, California voters stood up to Donald Trump, rejecting his attempt to steal elections in states like Texas, Florida, and Ohio," Rep. Dave Min, D-Irvine, said in a statement."The maps created by Proposition 50 are a direct response to Donald Trump's unprecedented power grab."

SEE ALSO: 'This Is The Only Way, To Fight Fire With Fire': Reactions To Prop. 50 Passage In CA

Early returns were strongly in favor of the measure, as were preliminary results from the AP Voter Poll, an expansive survey of more than 4,000 California voters.

Siddhartha Deb, 52, has lived in the U.S. since he was 7 years old, but he just became a citizen Tuesday. Immediately afterward, he registered to vote at San Francisco City Hall and cast his ballot in favor of Newsom's measure.

"I don’t like the way the Republican Party is basically trying to rig elections by gerrymandering," Deb said. "And this is the only way, to fight fire with fire."

Roughly 7 in 10 California voters said party control of Congress was “very important” to them, and those voters overwhelmingly supported the measure, according to the AP Voter Poll.

About 8 in 10 California voters who supported the ballot measure said it was necessary to counter the changes made by Republicans in other states, while only about 2 in 10 said they supported it because it was the best way to draw maps, AP Voter Poll found.

Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a live speech streamed on X, thanking voters for defending democracy and rallying Democratic leaders and voters around the nation for the midterm battle ahead.

"And let me make this crystal clear. We can de facto end Donald Trump’s presidency as we know it the minute Speaker [Hakeem] Jeffries gets sworn in as Speaker of the House of Representatives," Newsom said. "It is all on the line, a bright line in 2026. And so I want to thank everybody that stood up not just for our democracy, for those that feel bullied and intimidated, stood up for this notion of co-equal branches of government and a system of checks and balances."

Prop. 50 wasn't the only Democratic win Tuesday night. The party swept big races in the country Tuesday night. CBS News called three out-of-state contests: Democrat Abigail Spanberger defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in the race for Virginia governor. Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the governor's race in New Jersey against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, keeping the governorship under Democratic control for a third term. Democrat Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race, defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the Democratic victories on his social media platform Truth Social.

"TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT," according to Pollsters," the president wrote.

Trump continued venting with a flurry of Truth Social posts, including a vague, apparent threat, "…AND SO IT BEGINS!."

The president's supporters railed against Prop. 50. Assemblyman David Tangipa called the measure's passage "A sad day" because "the people of California have been lied to."

"They've been lied to by Governor Newsom and the elites here in Sacramento, and these election results just proved that they campaigned on a whole lot of lies and drove emotionally charged arguments to get people to vote against their best interests by protecting the gold standard on the redistricting committee," Tangipa (R-Fresno) said at the California Republican Party's Sacramento headquarters.

Prop. 50 asked Golden State voters whether to allow lawmakers to temporarily change congressional district maps to favor Democrats in response to Texas's partisan redistricting.

The measure, otherwise known as Congressional Redistricting or the Election Rigging Response Act, was spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom. In August, he signed the legislative package that gave Californians a voice as to whether they wanted to push back against what Democrats characterize as President Donald Trump’s power grab in Texas and other Republican-led states.

With the 2026 midterm elections just a year away, the redrawing of congressional maps to favor Republicans is a Trump strategy to maintain GOP control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The president publicly instigated the gerrymandering, but Democrats in California and other states see an opportunity to counterpunch.

Big money poured into the Prop. 50 fight, with more independent expenditures than any previous ballot measure in California, according to CalMatters reporting.

More than 7 million Californians had cast ballots as of Tuesday morning. The total voter registration in the state was 23,093,274, representing 84.87% of all eligible Californians. The percentage of voters registered with the Democratic party was 44.93%, compared to 25.22% registered with the Republican party and 22.60% stating no party preference, according to Oct. 20 data from the California Secretary of State's office.

Tuesday's special election was held as the U.S. Department of Justice deployed election monitors to oversee five California counties — Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside. The Trump administration framed the federal monitoring as a way to "ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law."

California Democrats were critical of the move as an intimidation tactic in communities with large Latino voting populations. Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent state monitors to oversee the feds.

There were no reports of election-day issues, though that did not stop Trump from claiming the process was rigged.

Early Tuesday — hours before the polls closed — the president and his press secretary claimed there was voter fraud in the election, prompting state leaders to push back.

"The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED," Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. "All 'Mail-In' Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are 'Shut Out,' is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!"

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration is working on an executive order in response to Prop. 50.

"California has among the WORST laws for securing elections in the entire nation," Leavitt posted Tuesday on X. "Governor Newscum and the rest of the radical Democrats in California blatantly refuse to adopt commonsense election integrity measures."

California Sen. Adam Schiff responded to Trump's claim of a rigged election on X. "California's elections are not rigged," he wrote. "Trump isn't even on the ballot today and he's still pushing baseless conspiracy theories to undermine confidence in our elections."

California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., issued a response to the administration's claims.

“If there are irregularities, what are they? Why won’t they identify them? Where exactly is this fraud? Ramblings don’t equate with fact,” Weber said.

“The bottom line is California elections have been validated by the courts," she continued. "California voters will not be deceived by someone who consistently makes desperate, unsubstantiated attempts to dissuade Americans from participating in our democracy."

California Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters Monday that he is “100 percent” concerned about false accusations by the administration of wrongdoing at polling places, saying it would be "naive" to assume Trump would accept the results of the Nov. 4 election.

LIVE RESULTS

Below are live election results from the California Secretary of State. Ballot counting will continue through the night. Refresh your browser for the latest.

(Click here if you are unable to view the data.)

SEE ALSO:

• Newsom Tells Prop 50 Donors To Stop Giving Him Money: Report
• 'This Is The Only Way, To Fight Fire With Fire': Reactions To Prop. 50 Passage In CA
• In Final Stretch Of Prop. 50 Voting, Millions Weigh In And Trump Declares Election 'Rigged'
• Could CA's Prop 50 Flip The U.S. House? 7 Things To Know
• Newsom Says He Is Considering A 2028 Presidential Bid
• Feds To Monitor 5 CA Polling Sites Ahead Of Nov. 4 Election
• A Rich Scientist Is Determined To Sink Prop 50: Report
• Poll Before Election Day: See How Prop 50 Is Faring