'To Fight Fire With Fire': How Sonoma County Voted On Prop. 50

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — A majority of Sonoma County voters joined the rest of California on Tuesday to approve Proposition 50, the statewide congressional redistricting measure.

With all Sonoma County precincts reporting, 110,301 ballots, or 74.2 %, were cast in favor of the measure, compared to 38,436 or 25.8 %, against, according to election tallies from the California Secretary of State.

Election results will change, however, throughout the ballot-counting canvass period as vote-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots (including conditional voter registration provisional ballots), and other ballots are tallied.

As of Wednesday morning, 63.8% of statewide ballots cast were in favor of Prop. 50, compared to 36.2% against.

Proposition 50 will establish new congressional district maps for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections. Democrats currently hold a 43-9 advantage in the state's U.S. House delegation, but Prop. 50 is expected to shake up five of the nine Republican-held congressional districts.

The GOP congressmen in those at-risk areas — Reps. Ken Calvert (Corona), Darrell Issa (Vista), Kevin Kiley (Rocklin), David Valadao (Bakersfield) and Doug LaMalfa (Richvale) — will see right-leaning voters reduced and left-leaning voters boosted in their respective districts in a shift that would make it likely a Democratic candidate would prevail in each race.

Issa, who unsuccessfully sued to block the new congressional maps from being implemented, called Proposition 50 "the worst gerrymander in history."

"I'm not going anywhere," he said in a defiant statement. "I'll continue to represent the people of California -- regardless of their party or where they live."

The measure, otherwise known as Congressional Redistricting or the Election Rigging Response Act, was spearheaded by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

In August, Newsom 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 have seen an opportunity to counterpunch.

By seeking to adopt a map to put more Democrats in power in areas currently represented by Republicans, they are asking voters to temporarily bypass the state’s independent, nonpartisan redistricting commission, which for the past two decades has prioritized maps that keep similar communities together and provide more electoral opportunities for communities of color.

Many voters who came out in support of Prop. 50 said it's Trump and his GOP allies who are guilty of a "power grab."

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."

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."

Newsom gave a live speech late Tuesday night on X, thanking voters and rallying Democratic leaders and voters nationwide ahead of the 2026 midterm battle.

"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."

City News Service, the Associated Press, and Patch Editor Toni McAllister contributed to this report.

Related:

• 'This Is The Only Way, To Fight Fire With Fire': Reactions To Prop. 50 Passage In CA
• Prop. 50 Passes In California: Rebuke Of Trump, Victory For Newsom