Barack Obama joins Gavin Newsom to promote California Democrats’ effort to redraw US House maps
ZOOM| CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM
By Arit John, CNN
(CNN) — Former President Barack Obama urged voters to back California Democrats’ redistricting effort during a virtual event with Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday, framing the proposed constitutional amendment as a way to counter President Donald Trump’s efforts to skew the 2026 midterm elections in Republicans’ favor.
The measure, Proposition 50, would allow Democrats to replace maps drawn by an independent commission with new maps that could help the party flip as many as five GOP-held US House seats. Democrats have argued their push is necessary to counter Republican-led gerrymandering in states such as Texas.
“The essence of Prop 50 is to say that if you are going to play that game, then we are going to try to counteract that abuse of the system,” Obama said in a call with volunteers.
Obama lent his voice to a recent campaign ad urging Californians to back the measure ahead of the November 4 election, warning that “the whole nation is counting” on the state to stop Republicans, who he said want to “wield unchecked power for two more years.”
The former president reiterated that message Wednesday.
“The problem that we are seeing right now is that our current president and his administration is explicitly saying that we want to change the rules of the game midstream in order to insulate ourselves from the people’s judgment,” Obama said.
Newsom praised Obama and called him the “closing messenger” of the redistricting campaign.
“I hope it’s dawning on everyone how precious this moment is,” he said.
The-CNN-Wire
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