Arnold Schwarzenegger enters fight on US House control, urges vote against new California districts

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday entered the national battle over U.S. House control, urging voters to reject a California ballot proposal to rejigger districts that he said would erode democratic principles and allow politicians to “take the power away from the people.”

“It is insane,” the former Republican governor and action-movie star said of Democratic-backed Proposition 50, a November ballot initiative intended to add five Democratic U.S. House seats in California to offset President Donald Trump’s moves in Texas to gain five Republican districts before the 2026 midterm elections.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me that because we have to fight Trump, to become Trump,” Schwarzenegger said. “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

The proposal championed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom would temporarily set aside districts crafted by an independent state commission and replace them with dramatically reshaped districts drafted by Democrats and designed to benefit the party’s candidates.

If approved, it’s possible the new political maps could slash five Republican-held House seats in the liberal-leaning state while bolstering Democratic incumbents in other battleground districts in the 2026 midterm elections. That could boost the Democratic margin to 48 of California’s 52 congressional seats, up from the 43 seats the party now holds.

Speaking at the University of Southern California, Schwarzenegger repeatedly stressed the proposal would set aside maps drawn in a public process by an independent commission he promoted as governor, and replace it with partisan maps shaped behind closed doors and blessed by “the politicians.” He never directly criticized Newsom or the Legislature’s Democratic majority, which endorsed the proposal.

Schwarzenegger signaled last month he would actively oppose the ballot proposal, posting a photo of himself lifting weights on the social platform X while in a T-shirt imprinted with the slogan, “Terminate Gerrymandering” and a partially obscured obscenity aimed at “the politicians.”

“I’m getting ready for the gerrymandering battle,” he wrote.

But it’s not yet clear how involved the wealthy former governor and one-time bodybuilding champion will be in the campaign, in which he could finance advertising and use his global celebrity to influence voters. Schwarzenegger, a centrist, is a longtime critic of Trump who has argued the parties need to move away from the extremes to break Washington gridlock.

Still, he’s remains a formidable political presence 15 years after he left office.

“I don’t think you want to run against Arnold Schwarzenegger,” said Bill Whalen, a fellow at Stanford University’s right-leaning Hoover Institution.

California and Texas — the nation’s two most populous states — have emerged as the center of a partisan turf war in the House that is spiraling into other states as well as the courts in what amounts to a proxy war ahead of the 2026 elections.

Newsom has cast the contest as a showdown with Trump, as Republicans seek to maintain the party’s slim House majority.

“We can’t stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across the country,” Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, said at a Los Angeles rally last month. “Donald Trump, you have poked the bear and we will punch back.”