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In a new ad released on Tuesday, Barack Obama urged California voters to support Proposition 50, a November ballot measure that could reshape the state’s congressional map and deliver up to five new Democratic seats in the US House.
“California, the whole nation is counting on you,” the former two-term Democratic president says in the video. “Democracy is on the ballot.”
On 4 November, California voters head to the polls to decide whether to approve Proposition 50. The measure, if approved, would authorize state lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional districts.
Proposition 50, spearheaded by California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and other Democratic leaders in the state, is designed to add up to five Democratic seats in the US House and was crafted in response to a Republican-led redistricting effort in Texas earlier this year where state lawmakers redrew their congressional map to add five new districts that would favor Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, at the behest of Donald Trump.
Newsom signed California’s redistricting proposal in August, sending it to the voters. At the time, Newsom said that California was “neutralizing” Texas’s map.
Obama first voiced his support for the effort over the summer.
“Over the long term, we shouldn’t have political gerrymandering in America, just a fair fight between Republicans and Democrats based on who’s got better ideas,” he said in August. “But since Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House and gerrymandering in the middle of a decade to try and maintain the House despite their unpopular policies, I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this. He’s put forward a smart, measured approach in California, designed to address a very particular problem at a very particular moment in time.”
In the new ad, Obama warned that “Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years.” But with Proposition 50, he added: “You can stop Republicans in their tracks.
“Prop 50 puts our elections back on a level playing field, preserves independent redistricting over the long term, and lets the people decide,” Obama said. “Return your ballot today.”
Newsom shared the video of Obama on his social media on Tuesday morning, captioning it: “Listen to @barackobama.”
A recent Emerson College Polling survey of California voters found that 51% of registered voters planned to vote in favor of Proposition 50, whereas 34% said they planned to vote no. The survey found that 15% said that they were undecided.
In September, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor and former Republican governor of California, urged voters to reject Proposition 50.
