Poll Shows Slight Majority of California Voters Support Redistricting Plan

Opponents of the measure claim the survey was flawed.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, joined by local congressional representatives, state officials, and supporters, speaks at the announcement of the redrawing of California's congressional maps, calling on voters to approve a ballot measure in response to a similar move in Texas being supported by President Donald Trump, in Los Angeles on Aug. 14, 2025. Mike Blake/Reuters

A new survey of California voters shows a slight majority would vote in favor of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting plan in November as a way to gain more Democratic Party seats in Congress.

The Emerson College Polling survey of California voters, published on Sept. 19, found 51 percent planned to vote in favor of Proposition 50 in the November special election.

Thirty-four percent said they planned to vote no, and 15 percent of voters surveyed were still undecided.

Newsom’s campaign did not return a request for comment on the survey, but an opposing organization—No on Prop. 50—said the poll had flaws, including a politically skewed pool of respondents.

“Even in this deeply flawed poll, the Yes side is in trouble,” Ellie Hockenbury, the group’s adviser, told The Epoch Times in an email. “Ballot initiatives usually lose support over time, and barely meeting the voter threshold needed with six weeks left to Election Day is a bad sign.”

Hockenbury said voters are skeptical of Newsom’s initiative.

“Voters are clearly seeing Gavin Newsom’s sham crusade to save democracy for what it really is: a partisan power grab that puts politicians over people,” she said.

According to Emerson College, the poll was conducted from Sept. 15 to Sept. 16 via cellphone. The overall sample of 1,000 California active registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Newsom signed a legislative package in August to redraw the state’s congressional map in response to Texas’s redistricting efforts.

Voters will choose on Nov. 4 whether to allow the state to use the new maps until 2030, when the power to redistrict will return to California’s independent redistricting commission.

Newsom and state Democratic Party legislators passed the proposition bill in response to Texas’s efforts to expand GOP control of its U.S. House delegation by five seats.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a bill signing event related to redrawing the state’s congressional maps in Sacramento, Calif., on Aug. 21, 2025. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

About 40 percent of California’s voters have supported Republicans in recent elections, but the GOP holds only about 17 percent of the state’s congressional seats.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot signed a law in August to adopt a new redistricting map that is expected to result in five more Republican House seats for the state. The GOP would then control 30 of Texas’s 38 federal congressional districts.

Support for Prop. 50 in California is higher among those “very likely” to vote in the special election, according to the survey. Of those, 55 percent said they would vote yes, while 35 percent said they would vote no.

Results of the Emerson College poll reveal a big change from an Aug. 14 Politico, Citrin Center, and Possibility Lab survey showing that nearly two-thirds of the state’s voters disagreed with the idea of changing the state’s current nonpartisan redistricting system.

Only 36 percent of voters supported giving redistricting power to state legislators at the time.