In Lake Tahoe, Some Voters See Redistricting As Opportunity For Change

Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, October 27, 2025…

• Californians are deciding on a ballot measure that could reshape how our state is represented in Congress.  Proposition 50 would redraw California’s congressional district lines to help Democrats pick up five additional seats in the House. Prop 50 is part of a national fight over redistricting. And if it passes, political lines from Sonoma down to San Diego will be transformed.
• To understand what’s at stake with Proposition 50, we’re going to some of the districts that would be redrawn. It’s a series we’re calling California Divided. We begin in the state’s 3rd Congressional District, at Lake Tahoe: a blue dot in a Republican-held district.

Proposition 50 Race Heads Into Final Week

Proposition 50 would temporarily replace the current congressional maps drawn by the nonpartisan California Citizens Redistricting Commission with maps favoring Democrats. The new lines would remain in place for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 House elections. The measure was placed on the ballot by Democrats in the state legislature as Republican lawmakers in Texas pursued their own pro-GOP redistricting plan.

The proposed California House districts — crafted by Democrats behind closed doors — have been designed to add five Democratic U.S. House seats to offset Trump’s moves in Texas to gain five Republican districts before 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.

In 3rd Congressional District, Some Tahoe Voters Hope New Maps Will Give Them A Voice

Tee May Duggan is at her home office, going through a stack of handwritten postcards. She’s mailing them to voters across the state, urging them to vote Yes on Proposition 50. Her house is just blocks from Lake Tahoe.

Duggan has lived here for 48 years and she’s no stranger to Democratic organizing. But she says the local energy around Prop 50 feels different. “Can you imagine if we had another vote in Congress for things for our community that didn’t involve the lake? I mean, I’m very concerned, but we also need more housing,” she said.

Duggan said Tahoe struggles with a lot of the same things other California communities do — lack of housing, workforce shortages, and the high cost of living. She wants a representative who will deliver on these things. Tahoe sits in California’s 3rd Congressional District – one of the five that would be redrawn to favor Democrats. The district’s had a Republican representative in Congress for decades. Right now, that’s currently Kevin Kiley. “I’ve taken questions of all kinds from people who agree with me on things, with people who disagree with me on things,” he said. Kiley said he also holds virtual town halls to accommodate his district’s sweeping size.

But that’s still not enough for many in the Tahoe area, who feel like their voices are forgotten. “There’s just a disconnect between an understanding of what happens on the ground in the rural areas of the Sierra Nevada that are part of this district,” said Courtney Henderson who sits on the Truckee Town Council. “I think the cuts to the US Forest Service do not serve this area. I think no matter what the boundary looks like or who that representative is, they have to have deep working knowledge of what happens on the ground and in rural communities and a lot of this district is very rural.”