In California’s San Joaquin County, one year after voting favorably for President Trump over Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, those same voters appear to be reversing course, voting in line with Democrats on Proposition 50.
CBS News projects California voters passed Proposition 50, a measure backed by legislative Democrats and Gov. Gavin Newsom that will redraw the state’s congressional districts to be more favorable to Democrats ahead of next year’s midterm elections following a similar redistricting push in Texas that favors Republicans.
San Joaquin County election numbers as of Wednesday afternoon show 53% of voters said “yes” to Proposition 50, siding with Democrats in the push to approve the measure. In last year’s election, voters in the county aligned with Republicans, with 48.9% voting for Mr. Trump over 48.0% for Harris.
United Farmworkers spokesperson Antonio De Loera said the Latino population, the largest demographic in the county, is making all the difference in the outcome of recent elections there.
“Latino voters are swing voters now,” he said.
De Loera said the San Joaquin County vote for Mr. Trump a year ago was about the economy, an issue he said the president is no longer winning with Latinos now.
“One of the big stories in the 2024 election was that Donald Trump and Republicans did in fact make big gains with Latinos,” he said. “Those gains have clearly not been permanent. What we’re seeing now is a swing back.”
Former San Joaquin County Republican Party chair Bishop Dwight Williams, a Trump supporter, said he believes the county is in new political territory: neither red nor blue.
Williams said the passage of Proposition 50 is not indicative of how voters in the county feel about the Republican Party.
“You had millions of dollars spent on the ‘yes’ side versus the ‘no’ side,” he said.
Counties have 30 days to finish counting the ballots. That’s when we’ll get a final official breakdown of how San Joaquin County voted on Proposition 50.
Still, Williams admits the Election Day result was a disappointment.
“Obviously, we had hoped for a different outcome,” he said.
