Rep. Jared Huffman was heartened by the blue wave that swept through Tuesday’s off-year elections — capped by voters’ approval of Proposition 50, a measure that reshapes California’s congressional map and could give Democrats a decisive boost in the U.S. House.

“If you’re a pro-democracy, Team America person, you just feel like the county’s waking up,” said Huffman, a Democrat from San Rafael.

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Prop. 50 scraps the state’s independent redistricting process in favor of a map drawn by legislators, giving Democrats a potential pickup of five House seats and countering GOP-led redistricting moves in Texas and other Republican-controlled states. California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission is set to resume oversight of district maps in 2031.

In Northern California, the new boundaries dramatically reconfigure the 1st, 2nd and 4th congressional districts — forcing current Democratic representatives to introduce themselves to unfamiliar, politically mixed communities and fueling speculation about who might run in the newly reshaped 1st District.

Huffman’s already vast 2nd District, which stretches from Marin County to the Oregon border, becomes even larger under the new map. It retains its coastal core — though in a narrower band — before stretching east from Humboldt County across the North State to the Nevada line. The redrawn district unites some of the most culturally and politically divergent regions in California, from ultra-liberal Marin to deeply conservative Modoc County.

“The first thing I’ve got to do is get out and do some listening, and take stock,” Huffman said of his expanded turf.

District 1 and McGuire speculation

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California’s 1st Congressional District, now represented by Richvale rice farmer and Republican Doug LaMalfa, has been transformed into a Democratic-leaning stronghold under Prop. 50. The new district begins in Santa Rosa, extends north through Mendocino County, then turns east to include Lake County, much of the Sacramento Valley, Chico and Paradise, all the way to the Nevada border.

Many political observers in Sacramento say the new map seems tailor-made for state Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, who hails from Healdsburg and who represents much of the same region. He will term out of the Senate at the end of 2026.

McGuire hasn’t yet indicated whether he intends to run for Congress, although he has left a trail of clues. In a Wednesday statement, he predicted “a tidal wave of change is coming to rescue this great country, and it’s starting here in California.”

He congratulated Golden State voters for delivering “a powerful message straight to the White House — you turn your back on the hungry, cancel people’s healthcare, kidnap our neighbors, and terrorize our communities — we will fight back.”

Butte County Democrat Audrey Denney, an educator and nonprofit leader from Chico, has already declared her candidacy for the new seat. LaMalfa, meanwhile, has sent mixed signals about his future plans.

Huffman’s challenge in a larger 2nd District

Though the 1st District has sparked perhaps the most excitement in Northern California’s political world, Democrats need to retain the 2nd and 4th districts to gain five seats in the House of Representatives.

Both districts are still considered Democrat-friendly but Huffman’s 2nd District is perhaps the most unwieldy and will challenge Huffman to balance the demands of liberal environmentalists in the south with rural conservatives, including fervent Trump supporters and the State of Jefferson up north, said David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University.

“He has to thread the needle between folks who are working the land and folks who want to protect the land,” McCuan said of the challenge now facing Huffman.

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Huffman said he already has a firm grasp on the unique economics and challenges facing rural communities.

“I have that all over my district right now,” he said. But “every place is unique, and I’m already starting the process of setting up some meetings and tours.

“You have to bring a lot of humility and listening to the front end of these conversation. I hope to represent these areas. And to do that well you have to understand them. And in some cases, not care how they vote.”

A map of California’s proposed new congressional districts, redrawn under Newsom’s redistricting effort, shows Santa Rosa moving into a district with Chico and Paradise, which are currently represented by Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, in the 1st congressional district. 

Prop. 50 results

Results posted within minutes of polls closing Tuesday night showed voters in Sonoma and Napa counties voters strongly supported Prop. 50.

In Napa County, 67.4% voted in favor and 32.6% against, based on 29,683 ballots counted as of 11 p.m. Tuesday — about 34% of the county’s 86,390 registered voters.

In Sonoma County, voters broke nearly 3 to 1 for Prop. 50, with 74.2% in favor and 25.8% opposed, according to late-night results that included 148,944 ballots, or about 46% of registered voters.

Those results included a total of 148,944 counted votes, or about 46.4% of the potential vote based on the 321,131 registered voters.

Elections officials in both counties estimated there were thousands of outstanding mail and provisional ballots left to count and they expected to receive additional ballots in the mail in the coming days. They expect to release additional results Friday.

Statewide, the latest results posted at noon Wednesday showed Prop. 50 leading with 63.8% of the vote to 36.2% against, according to the California Secretary of State’s website. About 34% of the potential vote was counted.

Voter turnout appeared high for a special election, according to local officials. Typically, elections held outside of a presidential cycle year draw low turnouts, with measures on special election battles tending to struggle, said McCuan.

But the national stakes associated with Prop. 50 proved a motivating force for voters.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, who was in Washington, D.C., when the results came in, said the swift and decisive passage “spoke volumes” about where voters stand.

“Californian voters on this issue didn’t like the fact that the president was trying to rig the midterms elections,” Thompson said. “They aren’t pleased with the direction that this president and the Republican congress are taking us.”

The new 4th District, which Thompson represents, is now pushed mostly to the east, taking in the southern corners of Sonoma and Lake counties, all of Napa, Colusa, Sutter and Yuba counties and parts of Yolo, Sacramento and Placer counties. Thompson, one of the Bay Area’s most tenured Democrats in national office, is running for a 15th term in Congress, facing a primary challenge from financier Eric Jones.

In anticipation of Prop. 50’s passage, Thompson said he had already begun meeting with constituents in the redrawn 4th district. Many in the local agriculture industry were vocal about opposing Prop. 50, Thompson said, but he added that he already knows many of them and the issues they face through his years representing the area.

Now, it’s a matter of reintroducing himself, he said.

“I’ve had lines in my district redrawn a number of times, it’s a little more work but that’s what you do,” Thompson said.

Other questions on the ballot

Voters in Petaluma and Timber Cove also weighed in on local measures.

Measure I in Petaluma proposed a $129 annual parcel tax to help fund secondary schools within the Petaluma City Schools district.

With 23,430 votes counted, the measure was trailing the two-thirds majority it needed to pass, with 60.5% of the vote in favor and 39.5% against. A total of 51,678 ballots were mailed to voters in the district.

It was unclear how many votes remained to be counted though the measure would have to capture a greater share of the outstanding votes to pass.

In Timber Cove, four candidates, including three incumbents, were vying for three seats on the Timber Cove County Water District board of directors.

In that race, Jess Weber led with 37.6% of the vote, followed by John Rea with 21.6%, John Gray with 20.8%, and Robert Leichtner with 20%.

In Napa County, Prop. 50 was the only item on the ballot.