Gov. Gavin Newsom has a message for generous supporters of the Yes on Prop. 50 campaign: keep your money.
In a video posted on X, Newsom announced that his campaign has reached its fundraising goals, having raised $38 million from 1.2 million donors across all 50 states.
“We have raised enough money to win this campaign,” Newsom said in the video. “It doesn’t mean we have won the campaign, quite the contrary, but we have reached our goals.”
Most political strategists told the New York Times that Newsom’s announcement was unorthodox but would likely deepen trust with his supporters.
However, Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist who has worked on past presidential races, told the publication that Newsom’s decision “to cease small-dollar fund-raising was actually ‘braggadocious’ in its own way.”
Newsom, in August, signed a bill calling for a Nov. 4 special election that will let Californians decide whether lawmakers should temporarily take control of drawing the state’s congressional maps, which would heavily favor Democrats.
Prop. 50 would override the state’s independent redistricting commission for the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections. The commission, approved by voters through ballot measures in 2008 and 2010, was designed to remove politics from the process, which is typically conducted every 10 years using U.S. Census data.
Under the plan, the commission would remain in law but lose authority – at least temporarily.
Supporters argue that the measure is necessary to counter partisan gerrymandering in GOP-led states. Opponents, however, argue it amounts to gerrymandering itself, returning power to politicians after voters had deliberately removed it.
A “yes” vote on Prop. 50 would allow the Legislature to implement new district maps for the next election cycle. A “no” vote would preserve the current maps drawn by the Citizens Redistricting Commission until new lines are created after the 2030 Census.
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