Republican tensions rise over Kevin McCarthy’s faltering push to fight California redistricting

By CNN Newsource

Published October 24, 2025 10:05 AM

By Arit John, Sarah Ferris, CNN

(CNN) — This summer, a fired-up Kevin McCarthy vowed to personally lead the fight against California Democrats’ redistricting push, aiming to raise $100 million to help protect Republican lawmakers in his home state.

But in the final weeks of the high-stakes election, the former GOP speaker has fallen massively short of that mark, according to people familiar with the fundraising goal he set. That has required more direct involvement from both the White House and GOP leadership, those people said.

Republicans acknowledge that they always faced an uphill battle to defeat Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on the referendum, known as Proposition 50, in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 4.5 million voters. But multiple Republicans told CNN that McCarthy and the groups involved in the campaign squandered a critical early window to craft a compelling message and raise the financial resources necessary to compete.

Now, even some senior House GOP leaders privately concede the measure is on track to pass, another Republican source said.

“I think it is an opportunity that is being wasted,” one House GOP lawmaker from California told CNN.

“A lot of people are frustrated … a lot of money could have gone into this,” the member said, noting that the fundraising is “nowhere near what normally happens in an election cycle.”

This lawmaker was among several Republicans who told CNN that they had been expecting a major influx of GOP cash that simply did not materialize.

Groups opposing Proposition 50 have spent a total of about $31 million so far on TV advertising while groups supporting the measure have spent more than $80 million, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. That gap has grown over the last four weeks, over which the “No” side has spent just $3 million on ad time, while the “Yes” side has spent more than $40 million.

McCarthy’s committee was meant to ramp up its spending in the final weeks of the campaign, a source familiar with the “No” side’s thinking told CNN. But that spending didn’t materialize to the level Republicans hoped. The group, “No on 50 – Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab,” has raised just $11.4 million, according to recent campaign finance data.

“It’s not raising money at a time when it really desperately needs those resources,” the source said. “So, the prognosis for this specific campaign doesn’t look terribly good.”

A spokesperson for McCarthy didn’t respond to requests for comment. But Jessica Millan Patterson, a former state GOP party chair who is running the McCarthy-backed committee, said her group would continue working to oppose the measure despite the spending disadvantage.

“We’re going to continue to raise the money that’s necessary to get out the vote, to make sure that we are persuading individuals that can be persuaded, and at the end of the day, make sure that we defeat this partisan power grab,” she told CNN.

She also pushed back on reports that McCarthy planned to raise $100 million.

“I think Politico is confused,” she told CNN, referencing the outlet that first reported the total. “That’s a number that the Democrats said that they were going to spend, and we are often outspent.”

But multiple sources told CNN that McCarthy had, indeed, told fellow Republicans he was aiming for $100 million and said they expected McCarthy to invest far more than he has for the race.

Some in Trump’s orbit are openly blaming McCarthy, who resigned from Congress in 2023 soon after losing his speakership.

Steve Bannon, a longtime McCarthy antagonist who is close to Trump, confirmed that White House officials were frustrated with McCarthy over the redistricting initiative. “Very very pissed,” he wrote in a text message to CNN.

“A defeat on Prop 50 makes Newsom the automatic Democrat front runner for ’28 — that’s why it was essential to get the President engaged early in this fight —a fight that could be won,” Bannon said. “The great minds of the Republicans never engaged, leaving us without our best weapon — MAGA.”

Momentum grows for the ‘Yes’ vote

Newsom and fellow Democrats seized national attention by launching their referendum effort following Texas Republicans’ move to launch a rare mid-decade redistricting at the behest of President Donald Trump.

Democrats in the California legislature voted to place Proposition 50 on the November ballot in August. If voters approve the measure, it would temporarily replace congressional maps drawn by the state’s independent redistricting commission with new ones crafted by California Democrats. The new lines would be in place through the 2030 election.

The Newsom-backed Yes coalition – made up of unions, advocacy groups and prominent national Democrats including former President Barack Obama – has argued that their party must “fight fire with fire” to combat Republican gerrymandering in other states done at the behest of the president.

Democrats are now entering the November 4 election with high confidence.

A CBS/YouGov poll found that 62% of likely California voters plan to or have already voted yes on Proposition 50, including 85% of Democrats, 60% of independents and 22% of Republicans. Thirty-eight percent of likely voters said they would or have already voted no. Half of voters said they were motivated by a desire to oppose the president.

If the measure indeed passes, five Republican-held districts will be redrawn to be more favorable for Democrats, erasing part of the seven-seat advantage Republicans hope to gain from redrawing maps in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina.

Trump has pressured other GOP-led states to redraw their maps as he hopes to prevent Democrats from winning control of the US House in next year’s midterms, giving them power to disrupt the final two years of his second term.

The Republican side still has raised tens of millions

Republicans have still raised some serious money: Charles Munger Jr., son of the late Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman Charles Munger, kicked off the opposition’s spending with more than $30 million. The second-biggest funder has been the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC backed by House GOP leadership, which chipped in $13 million.

Corrin Rankin, the chair of the California Republican Party, said the state GOP’s goal has always been to spend wisely and focus on turning out Republican voters.

“We’re always going to be outraised,” she said.

Shawn Steel, who is leading the state Republican Party’s efforts, said he had “zero expectations” about the financial resources the California GOP would receive. Still, he aggressively pitched national Republicans in Washington, DC, on fighting Proposition 50 and was able to raise $10.8 million for the party, he said. Steel said he also urged people to back the McCarthy effort.

“He’s gotten some. It hasn’t been insignificant,” said. “I wish he had more funding, because he really knows California very well. He’s the only recent-day Republican that’s gotten a lot of people elected to Congress.”

A more fractured opposition

The “No on 50” coalition has been more fractured than the “Yes” side. Different organizations are working to reach different segments of the voting population.

The California Farm Bureau has been urging their members to oppose the measure as well, arguing that the district lines cut up rural districts in the northern and central parts of the state and combine them with more urban areas.

“This, for us, is not a partisan issue,” said Shannon Douglass, the group’s president.

Munger, who helped fund the ballot initiatives that created the independent commission, has targeted “good government” Democrats and independents who want to preserve the power of the independent commission.

Amy Thoma Tan, a spokesperson for the Munger group, said they’re feeling “cautiously optimistic” about November 4.

“Voters are voting, and they are starting to understand what getting rid of the redistricting commission would do,” she said.

The question is what resources will be available to push that message. Thoma Tan declined to say whether Munger would invest more money, pointing to Munger’s recent statement that he will only discuss political strategy after the election.

Democrats, meanwhile, were quick to launch a massive organizing effort both in DC and in Sacramento that led to near-record fundraising levels. One of those organizers, California Rep. Pete Aguilar, the No. 3 House Democrat, said the party has found a way to translate their base’s deep frustration and anger at Trump into tangible action.

“We heard for so many months, ‘Democrats need to do something.’ I think with Prop 50 we are giving people something that can be done,” Aguilar told CNN. “The ‘no’ side kind of underestimated that people wanted to do something. And this is a moment of action.”

CNN’s Adam Cancryn and David Wright contributed to this report.

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