California will hold a special election this November with only one measure on the ballot, and it’s a controversial one: Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act.

The measure aims to redistrict California’s congressional map to help the state gain up to five Democratic House seats. This push comes as a direct response to the unprecedented move in Texas, where Republicans passed legislation on Aug. 29 to redraw the state’s maps in the middle of the decade — largely made possible by the 2019 Supreme Court decision of Rucho v. Common Cause, which ruled that federal courts cannot restrict partisan gerrymandering.

The Texas fight dominated national headlines for weeks over the summer as Democratic lawmakers fled the state to block the redistricting vote, prompting threats of arrest of those legislators by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The political skirmish started in July, when President Donald Trump openly called to redistrict Texas ahead of the 2026 midterms, saying in a CNBC interview, “We are entitled to five more seats in Texas.” Critics have called it a blanket power grab and an extreme form of partisan gerrymandering, because it could be the difference between Republicans retaining or relinquishing control of the House of Representatives.

“We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we’ve got to meet fire with fire. Other blue states need to stand up. We need to be firm,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom in an Aug. 14 press conference, announcing the ballot measure to counter Texas’s redistricting.  “Don’t mess with the great golden state.”

“[Trump] doesn’t play by a different set of rules, he doesn’t believe in the rules,” Newsom added.

The move by Newsom and supporters of the Prop. 50 measure is not without its share of controversy. Since 2010, California has used an independent citizen commission to draw its congressional map, with the explicit goal of creating fairly represented districts.

Prop. 50, slated to appear on the Nov. 4 ballot, would suspend that system temporarily for three election cycles, from 2026 through 2030, after which it would return to the control of the nonpartisan commission.

Newsom argued the measure is about fairness in the face of Republican gerrymandering, calling it a “temporary pathway” to protect Democrats’ influence in Congress. “Wake up, America, this is a serious moment,” said Newsom. “We can shape the future, and that’s what we intend to do today.”

But California Republicans are pushing back. Los Angeles GOP Chair Roxanne Hoge said on Fox News, “What they’re doing is opening Pandora’s box.”

“They think that five congressional districts are at stake, but what’s really at stake is fairness and the standing of the California constitution,” she said. “The independent redistricting commission was voted on by citizens overwhelmingly and then became part of the California constitution. They want to upend that.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor and former Republican Governor of California, has also voiced his opposition to the bill.

“It doesn’t make sense to me that because we have to fight Trump, we have to become Trump,” he said at a recent University of Southern California event.

Some nonpartisan groups have also raised concerns. The League of Women Voters of California has stated that it opposes mid-cycle redistricting, and several civil rights organizations have criticized both Texas and California for undermining long-established traditions.

At the same time, many labor unions and Democratic-aligned political action committees are lining up behind Prop. 50, seeing it as a necessary counter to GOP gains.

A Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll in August showed that some 48 percent of California voters support the measure. Voters are divided — and giving power from the state’s independent commission back to the legislature isn’t as popular an idea as Newsom might have hoped.

Money is already pouring into the fight, as both parties realize the outcome of the vote could determine the impacts of Trump’s final two years in office. For supporters and critics alike, Prop. 50 is bigger than just California — it’s about who gets to wield power in Washington.

“We believe in a national independent redistricting framework,” said Newsom, speaking in August. “Democrats unanimously supported that national independent redistricting commission. Republicans were nowhere to be found.”

“They want to rig these elections, and they want the power that gerrymandering provides because they know what Donald Trump knows: he’s going to lose the midterms.”