Newsom rolls out ‘shock and awe’ ad campaign for redistricting measure

LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is rolling out a barrage of new ads to sell voters on his redistricting measure, casting President Donald Trump as the face of the high-stakes special election.

The Democratic governor is releasing two ads Tuesday on his social media channels — two of at least nine spots he plans to release this week — as the ad wars over the ballot measure begin in earnest.

“This is a shock and awe approach,” said Sean Clegg, a senior Newsom strategist. “It’s not your grandmother’s media campaign where you do one woodworking ad” — a jab at the latest spot by the measure’s opponents — “and put it across all platforms. We’re living in a very different media environment.”

The same day, a committee opposing the measure financed by GOP mega-donor Charles Munger Jr. released its ad portraying Proposition 50 as a destroyer of the state’s independent redistricting panel, which voters first approved nearly 20 years ago.

The yes side, meanwhile, is taking a multi-faceted messaging approach aimed to juice turnout among Democrats and liberal-leaning independents in advance of the Nov. 4 special election.

The initial buy, which Newsom’s advisers put at a “multi-million dollar” level, includes spending on broadcast and cable television, as well as a hefty investment on digital. Newsom’s team is spending three-to-two on platforms such as YouTube, reflecting the sea change in media consumption in recent years and the massive cost of TV advertising in California’s sprawling media markets.

One, titled “Blitzkrieg,” accuses Trump of “following the dictator’s playbook,” highlighting the president’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and crackdown on universities before accusing him of “coming directly for our democracy” by insisting that Republican states redraw their congressional maps to gain advantage in the upcoming midterms. A yes vote for the measure, the ad argues, gives voters the opportunity to stop Trump — a direct appeal to the Democratic base to view the measure as a referendum on the president.

The second ad, featuring Sara Sadwani, a commissioner on the state’s independent redistricting panel, makes a softer sell aimed at independents in an effort to allay uneasiness about approving politician-sanctioned congressional maps.

“Donald Trump’s scheme to rig the next election is an emergency for our democracy,” Sadwani tells viewers, adding that the new maps are temporary.

Both ads end with the same tagline: “Save democracy in all 50 states.” It’s part of Newsom’s strategy to nationalize the ballot measure fight, in hopes that a broader battle over Trump will play to Democrats’ partisan advantage in blue California.

Democrats have tried before to rally voters with dark warnings about American democracy in peril, but with limited success. Kamala Harris made her closing argument in her 2024 presidential campaign about creeping authoritarianism, but the message fell flat with an electorate that was preoccupied with inflation and economic anxieties.

Clegg, the campaign’s point person on media and messaging, said the Yes on Proposition 50 campaign will make a number of arguments to voters, including hitting Trump on the economy and healthcare. But he argued rhetoric about democracy is now resonant, especially with Democratic base voters, with Trump actually in power.

“The democracy stuff is cutting because Trump has now overreached,” he said. “It's not theoretical anymore.”

Newsom himself is not featured in the initial two ads, although a third ad that appeared Tuesday focused on him heavily, and the campaign says he will be a primary messenger for the campaign. The campaign said other national Democratic figures it declined to name will also have prominent roles in future spots, much as they did in beating back the effort to recall Newsom in 2021.