Newsom's big win in state and for party

Prop. 50 passage could boost prospects for higher office even as GOP files suit

- JESSICA GARRISON AND SEEMA MEHTA

PEOPLE at an election night party in L.A. On Wednesday, state GOP leaders filed a federal lawsuit to block Proposition 50 redistricting.

California voters delivered a major victory for Democrats nationwide on Tuesday — and possibly for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political ambitions — by passing a redistricting plan that could help the party seize as many as five congressional seats in the 2026 midterm elections.

The ballot measure, Proposition 50, came under immediate attack by Republicans on Wednesday. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) accused California Democrats of trying to “rig” the 2026 midterm vote, and the state's Republican leaders filed a federal lawsuit to block the newly crafted congressional districts that will be enacted under Proposition 50.

The GOP response did little to temper Newsom's victory celebration, which started minutes after polls closed Tuesday night when he took to social media and posted a wrestling-themed meme of him body-slamming President Trump and continued through Wednesday when he told Johnson to “cry harder.”

“After poking the bear, this bear roared,” Newsom said Tuesday night after the Associated Press determined Proposition 50 had passed.

The ballot measure was seen as a searing denunciation of Trump and his administration's policies, which have included divisive immigration raids, steep tariffs, cuts to healthcare and a military occupation of Los Angeles.

Proposition 50 was an attempt to counter Trump's push to get Republican-led states, most notably Texas, to redraw their electoral maps to keep Democrats from gaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterms and upending his agenda.

Newsom said he was proud of California for standing up to Trump and called on other states with Democrat-controlled legislatures to pass their own redistricting plans.

“I hope it’s dawning on people, the sobriety of this moment,” he said.