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4h ago

California Supreme Court Rejects GOP Bid to Block Redistricting as Republicans Float Two-State Plan

The swift denial keeps Proposition 50 on the Nov. 4 special ballot in a bid to counter Texas’s Republican redraw.

California Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher of Yuba City, left, speaks against a package of measures to redraw the state's congressional districts on Aug. 21, 2025 in Sacramento.
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Rep. David Valadao walks past a small field of corn at his family's dairy farm in California's 22nd congressional district in Hanford, California, on September 21, 2024.
State Representative Matt Morgan holds a map of the new proposed congressional districts in Texas, at the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, on August 20, 2025.

Overview

  • The California Supreme Court dismissed a second Republican petition in two weeks to remove Proposition 50 from the ballot, issuing a brief order that left the case closed.
  • Proposition 50 would pause the state’s independent redistricting commission for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 cycles and allow lawmakers to enact new congressional maps in an effort to add roughly five Democratic seats, with the special election projected to cost about $200 million.
  • Assembly GOP leader James Gallagher introduced AJR-23 to split off about 35 inland counties into a new state of roughly 10 million people, a symbolic move facing overwhelming legislative and federal hurdles.
  • Republicans are organizing to defeat Prop. 50, with Kevin McCarthy and Arnold Schwarzenegger raising funds and donor Charles Munger Jr. contributing $10 million, while additional legal action has been promised by President Trump.
  • A UC Berkeley IGS poll reported by the Los Angeles Times showed 48% of respondents would vote for the plan and 36% would oppose it, signaling a competitive campaign landscape.