Though California could be key to House control, it now has few battlegrounds

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Set us as preferred WASHINGTON — The nation is set to have its least competitive congressional election cycle in years by some measures, with California partly driving the shift.The redistricting carried out in California and nine other states since 2024 has left the nation with an unusually low number of truly competitive districts, narrowing the battle for U.S.House control in this year’s historically consequential midterms cycle to a few dozen races at best.In California, that looks like a paradox: The state has both a shrinking number of political battlegrounds and a handful of critical races that could help decide which party controls the House.

Both are a result of Proposition 50, the Democratic-led, voter-passed redistricting effort designed to offset new maps drawn by Republicans in Texas and other states.Only three California races are rated as competitive by Cook Political Report, the nonpartisan analyst, compared with 12 races in 2024 and nine in 2022, according to a Times analysis of Cook data.California was also the biggest driver in the nationwide decline of competitive seats, according to a separate Cook analysis released Wednesday.

Six of the 14 U.S.House seats that dropped out of the swing-seat zone in 2026 were in the Golden State.“There’s no question that we’re seeing the consequence” of the state’s redistricting, “of having fewer competitive districts,” said Michael Latner, a professor of political science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

That doesn’t dilute the key role California is expected to play in Democrats’ effort to win the House majority, however.The new map made some blue seats safer and gave the party the chance to flip up to five red seats.

Get the latest on California’s 2026 midterm elections: deadlines, candidate races (Governor, U.S.“The path to the House majority...