Gov. Gavin Newsom has raised roughly $70 million in less than two months for the California ballot measure to redraw the state’s congressional lines, with the family of the prominent Democratic financier George Soros recently kicking in $10 million, according to two people with direct knowledge of the fund-raising.
The $10 million donation makes the Soros family the single largest funder in favor of the redistricting ballot measure. And it comes at a moment when President Trump has explicitly called for Mr. Soros and his son Alex to be investigated as part of an escalation of his efforts to clamp down on political opposition.
Mr. Newsom has cast the measure, Proposition 50, as a way for Democrats to counter efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to squeeze more safe districts out of red states before the 2026 midterms. Texas has already approved new gerrymandered maps that deliver as many as five new Republican seats in the U.S. House. Control of Congress, and Mr. Trump’s ability to enact his agenda relatively unchecked by lawmakers, is at stake next fall.
The California measure on the ballot in November will ask voters in the state to adopt new maps that would create as many as five new safe Democratic seats, effectively canceling out Texas.
The fight to sway Californians on which way to vote — yes or no — is expected to top $200 million. The people with knowledge of the Newsom fund-raising effort spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose numbers not yet made public.
Mr. Trump has increasingly focused on Mr. Soros and his family, claiming without evidence that Mr. Soros has fomented violent protests.
“Soros, and his group of psychopaths, have caused great damage to our Country! That includes his Crazy, West Coast friends. Be careful, we’re watching you!” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site last month.
The attacks have ratcheted up since the assassination of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk last week, as Mr. Trump and his top officials have vowed to go after liberal groups like Mr. Soros’s Open Society Foundations. On Fox News, Mr. Trump revived his calls for prosecutors to pursue racketeering charges against Mr. Soros. “We’re going to look into Soros because I think it’s a RICO case against him and other people because this is more than protests,” he said.
Liberal organizations, including Mr. Soros’s group, forcefully defended their philanthropic missions in an open letter this week.
Newsom officials declined to comment on the fund-raising numbers. A spokesman for Mr. Soros said in a statement that “this ballot measure temporarily changes the way lines are drawn in California, giving voters the opportunity to level the national playing field.”
Other top individual contributors to the Democratic effort in California so far are Michael Moritz, a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist and major party donor, who gave $2.5 million, and Reed Hastings, the Netflix co-founder, who gave $2 million, public filings show.
In a sign of the national stakes, the leading super PAC for House Democrats has transferred $7.6 million and the Democratic Governors Association’s political arm has given $2 million more, according to the filings.
The largest donor to the opposing side, Charles T. Munger Jr., has given more than $30 million to stop Mr. Newsom’s measure, which would roll back the state’s independent redistricting commission until the next census to allow for the new partisan maps. Mr. Munger had financed the original measure stripping lawmakers of the power to draw district lines.
Mr. Newsom’s team has also aggressively raised money online, hosting a streaming telethon-like show this week with prominent Democratic influencers and politicians, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Mr. Newsom’s ballot campaign has processed nearly 700,000 grass-roots contributions, totaling $22.1 million, according to the two people with knowledge of the fund-raising.
Labor organizations have given nearly $20 million, led by $3 million from the California Teachers Association.
So far, the measure’s opponents have outspent its proponents on television and digital ads, $10.1 million to $7.9 million, according to reservation data compiled by AdImpact, the ad tracking service.