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In just over a week, voters in California face a question that could determine who controls Congress after the 2026 midterm elections. They're deciding if the state should redistrict, giving Democrats an edge to win five more seats in the narrowly divided U.S. House. Now, this vote comes in response to President Trump encouraging Texas to redraw lines to favor Republicans. CapRadio's Laura Fitzgerald reports from a part of California where Republicans could lose out.
LAURA FITZGERALD, BYLINE: Loomis, California, is a suburban town of about 7,000 people outside of Sacramento. It's a red area, represented by a Republican in Congress. But under the redistricting map on the ballot in the November 4 election, voters there would be divided and drawn into districts likely to elect Democrats. Amanda Cortez is a Republican on the town council organizing opposition.
AMANDA CORTEZ: We want to keep our communities that are like together, right? And so if we get sucked into Sacramento or, you know, somewhere, we don't share the same needs, right?
CORTEZ: This area has lots of single-family homes on either side of a major freeway and faces suburban issues, like traffic getting in and out, rapid development and high gas prices. Mike Murray (ph) also lives in the area, and he's involved in his county's Republican club. He's voting no on the measure, called Prop 50, because he says his future votes for Congress will be swamped by the Democratic votes in nearby Sacramento.
MIKE MURRAY: If we wanted to live in an urban community with the problems and the benefits of an urban community, we would. But we choose to live here. And when we choose to live here, we hope that somebody will represent us and our way of life.
FITZGERALD: Usually, states redistrict at the start of the decade, when the census comes out, but California Republicans could end up paying the price for the redistricting battle that President Trump has set off around the country now. Murray says, for him, this isn't about national politics or redistricting in other states.
MURRAY: My concern has always been on our community and our representation. When things are wrong in other places, doing things wrong here, it's not the way to go. Hey, this is something you teach your kids. Two wrongs don't make it right.
FITZGERALD: But Trump did get Texas to write a new map that could flip five more seats to Republican candidates. So California's Democratic leaders say they drew their map to flip five seats for Democrats and counter Texas. Eric Schickler is a co-director at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California Berkeley. He says opponents to California's redistricting are concerned it'll sideline the state's Independent Redistricting Commission that's helped give their communities a voice.
ERIC SCHICKLER: The basic argument made by opponents of Prop 50 is that the nonpartisan process, you know, has worked well for the state. It's given rise to more competitive elections.
FITZGERALD: But for proponents, mainly Democrats, it's about Congress and the Trump administration.
SCHICKLER: To the extent that voters care about having a check on President Trump - well, you need a Democratic house to do that, is the argument that Democrats are making.
FITZGERALD: In the town of Truckee, a blue dot in the same red congressional district as Loomis, Democrats were wrapping up a meeting to organize for Prop 50. Cyan Samone sees redistricting as a chance to counteract Trump's immigration crackdown.
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CYAN SAMONE: I have a lot of friends who are immigrants from different countries who have left authoritarian regimes. And you see the patterns, and you just don't want to see that happen here. And I don't want to have to see people who fled terrible situations having to run again.
FITZGERALD: Her husband, Ben Woodard (ph), says redistricting could mean Democrats are able to elect a representative that'll pay more attention to what his community needs.
BEN WOODARD: I think that the Democratic Party representative would do that and would look over our interests, like, you know, the cuts to Medicare definitely impacted rural health care.
FITZGERALD: The proponents appear to have the upper hand heading into the November 4 election. It's a state where most voters are Democrats, and they see this election as part of a national struggle.
For NPR News, I'm Laura Fitzgerald in Sacramento. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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