Former Vice President Kamala Harris threw her support behind the effort to temporarily gerrymander California’s congressional map in order to send more Democrats to fight President Donald Trump’s agenda in Washington.
The ballot initiative, called Prop 50, was introduced by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to “fight fire with fire” — and it has been gaining endorsements among the Democratic establishment as Election Day nears.
Supporters argue that Republicans have not been playing fair by passing extremely gerrymandered state maps in places like Texas and North Carolina. A website explaining the proposal says those new maps amount to a “power grab” by Trump and his allies.
Prop 50 could flip five House seats blue in a very narrowly divided chamber.
“I voted yes for Prop 50 because Donald Trump and the Republicans are trying to rig the system,” Harris said in a video posted to social media Thursday.
“And so we, as Californians, are standing up to level the playing field.”
Former President Barack Obama endorsed the initiative last week, saying in a social media video of his own that “Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years.”
The 2026 midterms will come with the highest stakes of any midterm election in memory, as a referendum on Trump’s second administration.
A new Public Institute of California poll shows a majority of residents are in favor of the proposal, while the Republican campaign against it appears to have stalled. Newsom told supporters to stop donating to the Prop 50 cause because it has received so much funding.
The California Democratic Party has already endorsed the initiative, along with Equality California, a progressive LGBTQ+ group.
Critically, the new California map would expire in 2030, at which point the state would redraw the lines through an independent redistricting commission.
Some Democrats are already mobilizing around the gerrymandered map, starting to figure out who will run for the new blue districts, The New York Times reported.
Among Prop 50’s more vocal detractors is former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Trump critic who also strongly opposes gerrymandering.