California residents tuning into a 49ers game or loading up a YouTube video over the past month have been met with a dire, if familiar, message: Democracy is under attack, and it’s up to you, dear voter, to save it this November.

But exactly who is attacking democracy, and how the voter is supposed to save it, depends on who is paying for the ads.

“Save democracy in all 50 states,” one ad from the “Yes on 50” team implores.

“Protect your vote and democracy,” an ad from the “No on Prop 50” team says.

The unexpected — and mildly confusing — off-year ad war was set off by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to counter the Republican-led effort in Texas to draw new congressional maps to benefit Republicans with a California redistricting effort to benefit Democrats. Each party intends to pick up five seats when the dust settles.

In order for Newsom and California Democrats to be able to draw new maps, however, voters in the state must decide whether to temporarily remove the state’s independent commission that regularly draws maps and instead hand over that power to Democrats in the State Legislature, via a measure known as Proposition 50.

And, in a particularly 2025 twist, the Republicans and others seeking to thwart Newsom’s efforts have been borrowing language most commonly used by Democrats ever since Trump rose to power in 2016 — language that warns that representative democracy is at stake.

“Prop 50 is a direct attack on democracy, a dangerous idea that tears away the power of choice,” a deep-voiced narrator says, as a wood carving of the phrase “Fair Elections” is destroyed by a falling kettlebell. The ad praises the current independent commission in place in California.

A Republican attempt to localize the debate

The special election for Proposition 50 is set for Nov. 4, and so far, over $38 million in advertising has blanketed the airwaves and inundated online ad spots trying to persuade voters to support, or reject, the governor’s plan, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm. That number is likely to swell by the end of the year, as both Republicans and Democrats have been scrambling their donors to raise as much as $200 million for the fight.

Because the campaign is over a ballot measure, and not for a particular candidate, the campaign finance guidelines are a bit murky. Two groups, “Yes on 50: The Elections Rigging Response Act” and “No on Prop 50: Protect Voters First,” have been the main advertising vehicles for each side, able to take money from any prospective donor and funnel it into a single, cohesive campaign.

Already, the “no” campaign has raised nearly $74 million, with $41 million coming from the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main outside group working to elect Republicans to the House. Charles T. Munger, a wealthy moderate Republican who spent tens of millions of dollars on redistricting and other ballot measures more than a decade ago in California, has contributed $30 million. The “no” campaign has spent about $17 million in advertising so far, according to AdImpact.

The “no” ads that frame the campaign as an attack on a democratic process are, in effect, localizing the debate. They praise the relatively popular redistricting process in California while making no mention of the Republican efforts in other states such as Texas that triggered the effort — and certainly no mention of President Trump, who is pushing lawmakers in his party to draw up more districts they can easily win.

The only bad actors, the ads assert, are Newsom and the Democrats.

The ‘yes’ campaign goes national

So far, the “yes” campaign is out-raising and outspending the other side. It has taken in a flood of donations totaling more than $121 million, steered by Newsom. The single largest donor was the House Majority PAC, the leading super PAC supporting House Democrats, which has kicked in $36 million so far. Labor groups and Democrats have also donated millions. The campaign has spent $22 million so far.

Nearly every ad in support of Newsom’s effort carries three main points: It “protects independent redistricting,” it ensures “a fair midterm election” and it gives voters more voice.

And, of course, they attack Trump, claiming his push to draw new maps in Republican states across the country is a form of “rigging” the 2026 election. They frame a vote for Proposition 50 as a tangible step voters can take to stop him.

“We can’t sit by while they steal congressional seats, rig the next election and silence our voices,” Newsom says, direct to the camera, in one ad. “Prop 50 gives voters the power, preserves independent redistricting and offers all Americans a fair midterm election for democracy in all 50 states.”

Making democracy a core issue in a campaign has had mixed results for Democrats in the Trump era. In both 2020 and 2022, Joe Biden and many Democrats were able to leverage voters’ fears about far-right candidates to beat them. But in 2024, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s pitch that democracy was at stake was not so effective.

Nationalizing the issue is critical for Newsom and his allies. Redistricting is already a wonky affair, one that the average voter does not necessarily grasp, or get especially fired up over.

Framing the vote on Proposition 50 as critical for Democrats in the national battle over who will control Congress after the 2026 midterms, and not as one undoing a popular local reform, will be essential if Newsom is to be successful in November.

IN HIS WORDS

Trump threatens New York City

Self proclaimed New York City Communist, Zohran Mamdani, who is running for Mayor, will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party. He is going to have problems with Washington like no Mayor in the history of our once great City.

— President Trump, Truth Social, Monday, Sep. 29

Trump on Monday threatened to cut federal funding for New York City if Mamdani, a democratic socialist who leads most polls by double digits, is elected mayor in November. He issued the threat just a day after Eric Adams, the current mayor, dropped out of the race.

Trump’s remark could be seen as an attempt to bolster Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who is running as an independent candidate after he lost to Mamdani in the Democratic primary. But that could backfire, given the deep-blue city’s strong dislike of Trump.

“I think that Donald Trump is going through the stages of grief,” Mamdani said at a Monday news conference.

— Minho Kim

The Moment

A close look at the Constitution

As the nation approaches its 250th birthday next year, the National Archives has mounted its first display of the entire Constitution. Any visitor can check out the original document, as well as the amendments that revised it, including those that gave Black men, and then all women, the right to vote.

It’s a timely exhibition in a moment when President Trump is testing the limits of presidential authority granted by the document. My colleague Alyssa Schukar, a visual journalist, spent time there as visitors filed through as they peered at the handwritten pages that laid the foundation of American government.

ONE LAST THING

Bruce Springsteen reflects on ‘dangerous times’

Last night, at a star-studded New York City screening for a soon-to-be-released film, “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” Bruce Springsteen took the stage for a surprise performance.

But before he began to play, the Boss had a few things to say about the state of the country.

“These days, you know, we have daily events reminding us of the fact that we’re living through these particularly dangerous times,” he said.

The remarks recalled a message from Springsteen’s European tour this year when he spoke with increasing alarm about the political temperature and the authoritarian creep he sees coming from the White House. His remarks from that tour drew the ire of President Trump, who said in May that Springsteen “ought to keep his mouth shut.”

That directive was not heeded by Springsteen on Sunday night.

America, he said, “as battered as she feels right now,” continues to be “a land of hope and dreams, not of fear, or divisiveness, or government censorship, or hatred — that America is worth fighting for.”

Then he played his song “Land of Hope and Dreams.”

Jacob Reber contributed to this newsletter.