‘Neither party trusts the other’

The move is in response to the Texas Legislature’s mid-decade redistricting push that will likely gain them five Republican seats in the House of Representatives, which President Trump said he was “entitled to” in an interview with CNBC in August.

David Dorazio, a Foster City resident who voted for Trump, said he is opposed to Proposition 50, though he also isn’t particularly supportive of Texas’ redistricting, nor the president' s comments.

“That was a little concerning, and now states all across the country are going to do that, and they’re going to say they’re doing it because of California,” Dorazio said. “It’s a situation where two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Even though the measure expires in 2030, he said he is concerned state leadership will figure out a reason to approve an emergency extension.

If Proposition 50 passes, the changes to each district would vary in severity. While some are minimal, other changes integrate counties with vastly different demographics and geographies. In the proposed map, District 2 would combine Modoc County in the rural, northeast corner of the state — which Trump won by 72% in 2024 — with the affluent Bay Area county of Marin, which former Vice President Kamala Harris won by 80%.

San Mateo resident Yasmin, who didn’t want to give her last name, is supportive of the measure as a way to counteract what she considers egregious gerrymandering in Texas, especially at the request of the president. She laments the impact on residents who live in some of the redistricted areas but said she hopes it motivates them to pressure Republican leaders to stand up to Trump and call out gerrymandering when other Republican lawmakers try to do so.

“We have to do something. Just sitting back and not doing anything is not an option,” she said. “I especially like the fact that it's been worded as a way to be temporary and not permanent.”

Current polling data indicates the measure will likely pass. In the county, about 55% of voters are registered Democrats and 14% are registered Republicans, as of the 2024 election, according to Political Intelligence Data. Though not as high as many others, the county’s share of Republican-registered voters slightly increased between the 2020 and 2024 elections.

Yasmin said Trump’s past actions in 2020 and 2021 — pressuring former Vice President Mike Pence to reject the electoral vote count and calling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to increase his share of votes — is further evidence that there needs to be more checks on his power.

“Telling Texas to give him five more seats is like when he called up Georgia and said, ‘Give me 11,000 more votes,’” she said. “You can’t do that. I do feel like it’s going to get out of control, and frankly, that scares me.”

Political divide

The proposition is also emblematic of the political divide across many economic, social and political issues.

Yasmin said she’d like to see federal reform that requires independent commissions for all states. And both Dorazio and Karen Maki, chair of the San Mateo County Democratic Party, said they want to see more significant across-the-aisle negotiations, though it’s hard to know what that looks like in practice, given lack of trust.

“Republicans feel like they can’t make a deal or compromise on anything, and it puts the whole country in a terrible position, because if they make any kind of deal they probably won’t be re-elected, and it’s the same with Democrats, I think,” Dorazio said. “I don’t know how that ever gets fixed.”

Both parties have kicked off their own legislative efforts, with Democrats reintroducing the Redistricting Reform Act of 2025, which would ban mid-decade redistricting and implement a nonpartisan, independent commission for all states. U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, joined the bill and said the legislation would prevent the country from finding itself in a similar situation, “where a rogue president initiates mid-decade redistricting,” he said in a statement.

Proposed reforms

In August, U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, introduced House Resolution 4889 which would prohibit mid-decade redistricting and would end “the redistricting war,” according to a statement on his website. Kiley’s seat would be in jeopardy if Proposition 50 passes.

Gus Mattammal, a member of the San Mateo County Republican Central Committee, doesn’t support Proposition 50 and also wasn’t in agreement with Texas’ redistricting move, though he said he’s in favor of legislation like H.R. 4889.

“Maybe Republicans get something we want, which is national voter ID, and Democrats get something they’ve said they wanted, which is independent redistricting commissions in all the states,” Mattammal said.

While he appreciated the intent behind Riley’s bill, the measure “doesn’t go far enough,” he added.

Since the redistricting efforts by Texas and California have advanced, leaders and lawmakers from other states have also indicated a desire to redistrict, and Trump has said he hopes other states, such as Florida and Indiana do the same, with some already going through the process.

Even if Proposition 50 passes, Democrats’ strategy to redirect California could backfire, given more state legislatures are currently Republican-led, Mattammal said.

Maki said it’s likely Trump would encourage red states to gerrymander regardless of California’s proposition.

“They’re going to do whatever they want to do, whether we do this or not. If we don't do this, maybe Trump will push even harder on [red states],” Maki said. “There are too many unknowns.”

Daniel Torunian, vice chair of the San Mateo County Republicans, said he’d also like to see national reforms that stop gerrymandering and mid-decade redistricting across all states, but also acknowledged it seems increasingly difficult for the parties to compromise and reach meaningful agreements.

“Neither party trusts the other one,” Torunian said. “For anything that’s going to be some form of national election reform, you would either need bipartisan support or one party would have to have such a majority that they could push that agenda all the way through the finish line. I think the agenda needs to have three pieces — a national holiday for voting, voter ID and districts tied to the census data.”

In September, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors voted on a resolution in support of Proposition 50.

The election will be Tuesday, Nov. 4.