With only a little more than two months until Election Day, campaigns will be working overtime to convince voters whether they should adopt new partisan congressional maps.

The Assembly passed the measure 57 to 20, and lawmakers on the floor erupted in applause even before they closed the vote.

The two largest U.S. states have launched a congressional mid-decade redistricting war, and several other states are joining the fray ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, which Democrats hope will mark the end of Republicans’ control of the federal government.

So did California Democrats, especially Gov. Gavin Newsom. In a matter of weeks, they bluffed themselves into the marquee political contest of Trump’s second term, a high-voltage fight to shape the outcome of the 2026 midterms and the remaining years of his presidency.