Republicans, including ‘cowardly’ Schwarzenegger, take heat for Proposition 50’s lopsided loss

Republican infighting escalated further after California voters this week overwhelmingly approved a Democrat-friendly redistricting plan that could weaken the Republican Party’s control of Congress and derail President Trump’s polarizing agenda.

The state GOP chairman was called to resign, and former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who advocated for the creation of the state’s independent redistricting commission, was called a “coward” by a top GOP leader for not becoming more involved in the campaign.

Leaders of Republican-backed committees opposing the ballot measure known as Proposition 50 were questioned about how they spent nearly $58 million on the special election after such a poor outcome.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, once a prodigious Republican fundraiser, reportedly promised early in the campaign that he could raise $100 million for the opposition but ended up giving away a fraction of that amount.

Assemblyman Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego), a conservative ardent supporter, called for state GOP chair Corrin Rankin to resign and blamed other Republican leaders and longtime party officials for the failure of the ballot measure, calling them “derelict, unreliable and incompetent.”

“Unless serious changes are made in the party, the midterm elections will be a disaster,” DeMaio said, blaming other groups opposed to the effort. “We need accountability. There needs to be a reckoning because otherwise lessons cannot be learned. The old guard needs to go. The old guard has failed us too many times. This is the latest failure.”

Rankin countered the criticism, saying the state party was the most active GOP force in the final stretch of the election. He said the party raised $11 million in the last three weeks of the campaign, spending it on mailers, digital ads and text messages, as well as organizing phone banks and marching in the area.

“We left everything on the field,” Rankin said at a news conference Wednesday morning in Sacramento about the federal lawsuit filed by California Republicans claiming Proposition 50 is unconstitutional. “We were the last man standing to reach out to Republicans and get them to show up, too.”

Responding to criticism that his efforts were disorganized, including sending opposition campaign mailers to voters who had already voted, Rankin said the party would conduct a post-election review of its efforts. But he added that he was extremely proud of the work his team did in the “rushed special election.”

Barring successful legal challenges, the new California congressional districts enacted under Proposition 50 would go into effect before the 2026 elections. The new district maps favor Democratic candidates and are designed to unseat five Republican incumbents; That could erase Republicans’ narrow edge in the U.S. House of Representatives.

If Democrats win control of the body, Trump’s policy agenda would likely be blocked and the president and members of his administration would face multiple congressional investigations.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and other California Democrats proposed Proposition 50 in response to Trump urging elected officials in Texas and other GOP-led states to redraw congressional districts to increase the number of Republicans elected to the House of Representatives next year.

New California congressional boundaries approved by voters Tuesday could give Democrats the opportunity to pick up five seats in the state’s 52-member congressional delegation.

Proposition 50 would change the way California determines the boundaries of congressional districts. The measure asked voters to approve new congressional district boundaries for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections, designed to favor Democrats and overriding the map drawn by the state’s independent redistricting commission.

Some Republicans complained that Schwarzenegger was no longer involved in the election. The movie star supported the creation of the independent commission in 2010, his last year in office. After leaving office, he campaigned for the creation of similar bodies across the country to combat the partisan drawing of district boundaries.

Shawn Steel, one of California’s three representatives on the Republican National Committee, called Schwarzenegger a “cowardly politician.”

“Arnold decided not to participate in it,” Steel said. “Arnold literally raised the flag and immediately went under the table.”

Steel said the former governor failed to follow through on the messages he repeatedly conveyed about the importance of independent redistricting.

“His name could have been on the ballot as his opponent,” Steel said. “He turned down that offer. I would say it’s disappointing for Arnold, too, but I’m not surprised. This is his political legacy.”

Schwarzenegger’s team dismissed this criticism as misinformed.

“We were clear from the beginning that he would not be a part of the campaign and would speak his mind,” said Daniel Ketchell, a spokesman for the former governor. “His message was very clear and non-partisan. It was probably hard for voters to believe that they really cared about fairness when a campaign couldn’t even criticize gerrymandering in Texas.”

Schwarzenegger spoke against Proposition 50 several times during the election; Including a speech at USC that was turned into a television ad that appeared to be blacked out before Election Day by one of the anti-Proposition 50 committees.

On election day, she emailed her followers about gut health, electrolytes, protein bars, fitness and happiness-boosting conversations. Tuesday’s election was not explicitly mentioned.

The Democrat-led California Legislature in August voted to put Proposition 50, which costs nearly $300 million, on the November ballot, jump-starting Tuesday’s special election.

Supporters of the ballot measure, who contributed nearly $136 million to various efforts, outspent opponents. This fiscal advantage, combined with Democrats’ overwhelming lead in voter registration in California, was a major contributor to the ballot measure’s success. When it was introduced in August, Proposition 50’s support was weak and its prospects appeared uncertain.

Approximately 64% of approximately 8.3 million voters As of Wednesday night, 36 percent of those who voted supported Proposition 50, while 36 percent opposed it, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.

The two main campaign committees, as well as the state Republican Party, also opposed proposal 50, which McCarthy supports. A separate group was funded with more than $32 million from major GOP donor Charles Munger Jr., Warren Buffett’s right-hand man and the son of a billionaire who financed the creation of the independent congressional redistricting commission in 2010.

Representatives of the two committees, who defended their work after Tuesday night’s election, were summoned immediately after the polls closed and did not respond to repeated requests for comment Wednesday, saying they could not overcome major fiscal disadvantages and that the proposal’s supporters should keep promises they made to voters, such as pressing for national redistricting reform.

Newsom’s committee backing Proposition 50 has led prominent Democrats to support the effort, including former President Obama appearing in ads supporting the proposal.

This is in stark contrast to the opposition’s efforts. Trump was largely absent, probably because he is deeply unpopular among Californians and the president does not like to be associated with lost causes.