Former US President Barack Obama has launched an urgent behind-the-scenes effort to rally support for California’s redistricting ballot measure. Photo / Melina Mara, The Washington Post
In late July, Barack Obama spoke to his former attorney-general, Eric Holder, about how Democrats should respond to President Donald Trump’s unprecedented mid-decade push to add five favourable United States House seats to protect the Republican majority.
They had each spent days conflicted about what to do.
Both had previously championed non-partisan redistricting.
But they agreed that letting Trump’s effort in Texas go unanswered wasn’t an option.
They kept coming back to a plan from California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) that would offset the move with five new Democratic-leaning seats.
Within days, Holder drafted a statement endorsing the proposal and ran it by the former president, who quickly signed off.
It marked a stark shift that, in their view, was a sign of the emergency measures they believed were required.
“We’re doing things that kind of go against what we talked about,” Holder said.
They decided, “we have to preserve our democracy if ultimately we’re going to heal it”.
That phone call set in motion an urgent behind-the-scenes effort by the former US president to rally support for California’s Proposition 50, which is on the ballot in a November 4 special election.
If successful, it would mark a concrete countermeasure against Trump’s agenda less than a year into his second term - the kind that Obama has increasingly come to believe is necessary.
Obama’s involvement in the redistricting fight is a reflection of the deep anxieties he harbours about Trump’s second term, according to multiple people familiar with his thinking.
It has propelled the ex-president into a more political and public-facing role than he once envisioned.
With his enduring popularity and the party still struggling to unite behind new leaders after losing the White House and Congress, no other Democrat commands his level of authority or reach.
“I think it’s really clear that President Obama left office fully intending to play the role that traditionally had been played by former presidents, and that is to go about their interests, professional and otherwise, and leaving the governance up to their successors,” said Representative James Clyburn (D-South Carolina), a longtime Obama ally.
“We are not living in ordinary times. And extraordinary times require extraordinary action.”
This article is based on interviews with 19 people, including those close to Obama and Newsom, as well as Democratic strategists and outside advisers, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity. Obama declined to be interviewed.
The ex-president has grown especially worried that some lawmakers and voters are not confronting Trump with the same urgency they showed during his first term - and that major institutions, including universities and law firms, have too often capitulated to Trump’s demands, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
“We can stand up to this. We can call it like we see it,” Obama said on a recent podcast.
“We need people who have whatever platforms they have to be able to say, ‘no, that’s not who we are.’”
He has been more pointed in his attacks on Trump in recent weeks and has stepped up his political activity in the run-up to this year’s elections on November 4.
He filmed an ad for Prop 50 and is scheduled to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidates Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia on November 1.
And he has been in touch with Newsom’s team on additional ways he can help on Prop 50 during the campaign’s final push.
Yesterday, Obama made a surprise appearance with Newsom during a virtual event with volunteers, where he said Prop 50 “has critical implications, not just for California, but for the entire country”.
“There is a broader principle at stake that has to do with whether or not our democracy can be manipulated by those who are already in power,” Obama said.
Trump, whose political rise was powered by conspiracy theories about Obama’s birth certificate, has continued to frequently attack his predecessor.
During his second term, Trump has baselessly repeated his assertion that there was “no doubt” Obama had committed criminal acts.
The White House spent days trying to portray Obama and members of his administration as part of a vast “treasonous conspiracy” that tried to thwart Trump’s chances in the 2016 election - prompting a rare rebuke from Obama’s office.
Obama’s goal since leaving office more than eight years ago has been to elevate new leaders and help build a Democratic Party that can survive without him, according to those close to him - which some Democrats have accused him of failing to achieve when he was president.
The 44th president has served as a sounding board for several governors, including Newsom, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Wes Moore in Maryland.
He has spoken with candidates such as Zohran Mamdani, who is running for New York mayor, and James Talarico, who is seeking a US Senate seat in Texas; and conferred with several Democrats eyeing a 2028 presidential run.
Those conversations have included tactical political advice and candid guidance on the toll a presidential campaign - and weeks of fundraising on the road - can take on a family.
Few tasks have occupied Obama’s attention like the redistricting fight, a raw partisan battle he is engaging in after years of loftier, more hopeful rhetoric about bridging divisions.
What started in Texas with Trump pressuring Republicans to redraw the map years before it was due for an update has become a national partisan fight pitting red and blue states against each other.
And it comes 21 years after Obama gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention declaring: “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America, there is the United States of America”.
Now, some Democrats think he should set a more combative tone for the party on other fronts.
“Beyond redistricting, Obama has been hitting singles when he should be hitting home runs - making ad hoc statements with no long-term value or more generally staying silent as Rome burns,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
Obama’s aides say he is choosing carefully when and where to re-enter the political arena.
“Since leaving the White House, President Obama has not hesitated to use his voice when he can drive impact, but he has dedicated his post-presidency to championing the next generation of leaders,” Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to Obama, said in a statement.
Obama’s plunge into redistricting has no modern precedent, according to presidential historians, who noted that former presidents have largely stayed out of big political battles after leaving office.
Obama, who was quieter publicly at the start of Trump’s first term, has said he’d speak up whenever a line was crossed - something he believes has happened far more often in the second term.
“The redistricting in California was a big step because that was really concrete. It wasn’t simply making a speech to rally Democrats or attack the President, when [Obama has] done that before,” said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University.
“A lot of Democrats weren’t sure where they landed on this, and he made a pretty affirmative statement.”
Between July and August, Obama spoke with key architects of the effort, including Newsom and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California), helping shape the public case for the measure and strategising how to line up support among California Democrats.
Obama’s endorsement helped swiftly unite Democrats behind the measure and speed its passage through the California legislature.
Many Democrats say they wish Obama would speak out more often and more forcefully as Trump consolidates power and weakens democratic institutions.
The party - still reeling from sweeping losses in last year’s elections - has at times struggled to regroup or mount a cohesive, effective response to Trump, who polls show is unpopular.
“He’s the closest thing currently to a Democratic standard-bearer because there hasn’t been somebody to emerge in the party as the natural leader,” said Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and president of the LBJ Foundation.
On redistricting, some of Obama’s most consequential moves happened behind the scenes.
As Trump began publicly pressuring Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) to redraw the congressional map for his state - an idea that initially made some Republicans uneasy - Newsom and his aides quickly convened lawyers and legal experts to explore California’s options.
One possibility was for the legislature to redraw the map itself, a move that would almost certainly face legal challenges because the state constitution requires non-partisan redistricting.
The other was to put the measure before voters to temporarily change the maps.
Newsom and his team concluded that was the more defensible route - especially because California voters approved a non-partisan redistricting process in 2008 and 2010.
That was key to getting Obama and Holder on board.
Endorsing Newsom’s proposal ran counter to what the National Democratic Redistricting Committee - the Holder-founded group backed by Obama, which is focused on drawing non-partisan maps - stood for.
They felt the response was measured because it was temporary and required a stamp of approval from Californians.
“Our enduring commitment to fairness does not blind us to reality,” Holder said in a July 30 statement.
“In this moment steps must be taken to respond to the authoritarian measures being considered in certain states and now so brazenly taken in Texas.”
As Democrats debated publicly whether Newsom’s plan went too far - and risked setting an irreversible precedent - Obama and his team quietly co-ordinated with Newsom’s office to build support.
Pelosi, who was helping Newsom rally California Democrats and raise millions of dollars, spoke several times with Obama, urging an all-hands-on-deck response from the party, according to a person familiar with their conversations.
Democrats knew selling their voters on a bare-knuckled redistricting power play could be difficult, given that their leaders - including Obama - had been preaching the benefits of non-partisan redistricting for years.
Newsom’s team polled voters to identify the most effective messengers. The results showed Obama was the most popular political figure among California Democrats and independents by a wide margin.
In early August, Newsom and Obama spoke on the phone for more than an hour, according to Holder and three other people familiar with the call.
The two had little personal history - Newsom, now seen as a likely 2028 presidential candidate, served as San Francisco mayor and lieutenant-governor during Obama’s presidency - but Newsom viewed Obama’s support as critical.
They strategised on how to shepherd the measure through the legislature and communicate it to the public.
Newsom and Pelosi thought Obama would have unmatched impact.
Obama made it clear he intended to back the plan but was waiting for the right moment.
Obama’s eventual endorsement and ad, said a person close to Newsom, was considered “a huge step in their relationship”.
By mid-August, Obama began lending his voice to the redistricting fight to ensure it received national attention.
When Texas Democrats left the state for two weeks to temporarily block a GOP vote on the new map - prompting threats from Republicans, civil arrest and removal from office - Obama called in to one of their meetings at a secret location in Illinois to commend their stance.
He knew the Democratic legislators would have to return to Texas and that Republicans would ultimately pass the map.
He later released a portion of the call to make sure their protest “would make an imprint on the national conversation”, according to a person familiar with Obama’s thinking.
“I want all of you to be returning feeling invigorated and know that you have helped to lead what is going to be a long struggle,” Obama told the lawmakers during a virtual meeting.
Five days later, at a Martha’s Vineyard fundraiser for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, Obama publicly threw his weight behind the California proposal.
“I want to see as a long-term goal that we do not have political gerrymandering in America. That would be my preference,” Obama said.
“But I want to be very clear: Given that Texas is taking direction from a partisan White House … I have tremendous respect for how Governor Newsom has approached this.”
Almost overnight, Democrats across the country lined up behind Newsom’s plan.
Within days, the Democratic-dominated California legislature voted to place the new map on the ballot.
Two weeks ago, Obama filmed an ad aimed at motivating Democrats and independents to back Prop 50.
“California, the whole nation is counting on you. Democracy is on the ballot November 4th,” Obama says in the ad, as a video shows a shadow of Trump and images of the National Guard and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in US cities.
“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years. With Prop 50, you can stop Republicans in their tracks.”
He sent it to Newsom’s team, which added music and other edits and released it last week. The spot is now the most used across California, even as other prominent Democrats have joined the campaign, according to internal metrics obtained by the Post.
- Maeve Reston contributed to this report.
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