By Steve Contorno, CNN

(CNN) — California’s redistricting battle has now reached the airwaves, unleashing an advertising blitz that is expected to grow only more urgent – and staggeringly costly – in the post-Labor Day sprint to the November special election.

On Tuesday, groups on both sides of the fight in California launched their first major salvos in the ad wars that are sure to dominate Golden State televisions and devices over the next nine weeks.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will launch nine ads this week aimed at convincing voters to back new congressional districts drawn to help Democrats win five more seats in the 2026 midterms. Newsom debuted the first of the ads – a pair of 30-second spots – Tuesday, and they will soon appear on televisions and digital platforms all over the state.

Meanwhile, an opposition group bankrolled by Charles Munger Jr., the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffet’s late business partner, announced its own television commercial intended to convince Californians to vote against Newsom’s political play.

As of Tuesday morning, proponents of the redistricting push had spent about $3.5 million booking ad time for the special election, while opponents had spent about $9.7 million, according to data from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

The intensifying push is illustrative of the unusually high stakes for an off-year election. Democrats are depending on California to counter the extraordinary push by Republicans to redraw district boundaries where they can to help the GOP maintain control of the narrowly divided US House for the second half of President Donald Trump’s term.

Already, Republicans in Texas have overhauled their congressional boundaries to give their party a path to winning five more seats next year. Missouri is expected to follow suit in the coming days.

California Democrats moved swiftly last month to approve new maps to offset the Texas redistricting. But for Gov. Newsom’s gambit to work, voters must first decide to override the state’s independent redistricting commission, the body empowered by the California constitution to draw legislative boundaries. They will vote on the measure, called Proposition 50, on November 4.

Newsom’s ads put Trump at the center of the fight, telling Californians they can stop Trump and put elections on a “level playing field.”

One ad, featuring ominous music and cuts of the president alongside Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin, says Trump is “following the dictator’s playbook” with a “scheme to rig the next election.”

The other says Trump has sparked “an emergency for our democracy” that demands a response. It features a direct-to-camera pitch from Sara Sadhwani, a professor of politics at Pomona College and a representative on the independent commission that Newsom is asking voters to supersede.

More ads will roll out over the course of the week, according to the Newsom-backed group. Together, the ads are part of an eight-figure campaign – an initial injection of spending in what is expected to become one of, if not the most, expensive political battles of the year.

Trump goes unmentioned in the ad from Protect Voters First, the group funded by Munger Jr.

Instead, its first ad urges Californians to protect the independent commission that was first installed in the state constitution 17 years ago with overwhelming support from voters. Good government groups and others have celebrated the commission as a crucial pivot away from the kind of partisan gerrymandering that Americans have long objected to.

Munger Jr. helped fund the ballot initiative that put the independent commission in place and has vowed to dip into his vast wealth to defend it. He has already put more than $20 million into the campaign seeking to defeat Prop 50.

In an op-ed published Tuesday morning in the New York Times, Munger Jr. said Democrats would “lose the moral high ground” if they continue down this path in the name of defeating Trump.

“Democratic politicians should seek to channel voter outrage at Texas Republicans’ efforts to game the system into election results,” Munger Jr. wrote. “By doing so, they could flip hitherto unreachable seats currently held by Republicans and overcome the Texas gerrymander.”

Newsom has alluded to Munger’s deep pockets while appearing in digital ads asking for financial help. The fundraising appeals have reached Facebook users in California, but also New York, New Jersey, Florida, Washington and Texas, according to data published by the platform.

Newsom’s committee has raised more than $13.2 million between August 11 and August 31, state figures show.

CNN’s David Wright and Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.