The father of California’s past redistricting reforms has come out against California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) proposal to redraw the state’s congressional districts, writing in a New York Timesop-ed that he’s opposing the legislative response to President Donald Trump’s nationwide gerrymandering crusade so that he can give “the people an informed choice” and “preserve free and competitive elections.”
But the essay’s author, conservative megadonor Charles Munger Jr, failed to disclose that to do so, he’s funding opposition tactics like a recent mailer that falsely suggested to the state’s liberal voting base that progressive lawmakers and organizations opposed Newsom’s redistricting. The campaign resembled deceptive antiabortion and anti-union efforts that Munger Jr has bankrolled in the past.
While he fashions himself a good-government moderate, Munger Jr’s multimillion-dollar misinformation campaign could be a prelude to just how far powerful and moneyed interests are willing to go to ensure that Republicans win the national redistricting battle and preserve GOP congressional control in the 2026 midterm elections.
Newsom and his allies are pushing voters to redraw California’s congressional districts to add Democratic seats in a November 4 special election. The effort is explicitly framed as a countermeasure to Trump pressuring Texas and other states to redraw their congressional maps mid-decade to flip seats in the 2026 midterm elections and preserve Republicans’ razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives.
Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) recently tweeted he would fight Newsom’s redistricting effort, and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is reportedly aiming to raise $100 million in support of the campaign to take down the measure.
Far less conspicuous but more influential to the opposition campaign is Munger Jr, a bow-tie-wearing Palo Alto physicist and the son of the late billionaire Charles Munger, former vice chairman of the multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. Widely regarded as Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, the elder Munger drew criticism for suggesting that people facing economic hardship during the 2008 financial crisis needed to “suck it in and cope.”
According to Politico, Munger Jr’s recent $10 million donation to the opposition effort marks the campaign’s first major contribution.
Munger Jr, along with his sister Molly, has been characterized as a California counterpart to the Koch family, the Texas-based petrochemical tycoons who’ve contributed hundreds of millions to conservative causes. From 2001 to 2011, Munger Jr was the state’s third-largest political donor. During that period, he contributed $14,093,588 to twenty Republican candidates, twenty-five ballot measures, and the state’s Republican Party. He is the chairman of and the leading donor to the political action committees Spirit of Democracy California and Spirit of Democracy America, conservative super PACs that have helped elect numerous Republican candidates to state office.
Munger Jr first gained attention as a key financialbacker of California’s independent redistricting efforts back in 2008 and 2010. The measures, which transferred the state’s redistricting power from legislators to an independent California Citizens Redistricting Committee, were framed as eliminating partisan gerrymandering — although some Republicans believed the reforms would give them an advantage by creating more competitive districts in the deep-blue state.
Proposition 50, up for a vote this November, would give congressional redistricting power back to state representatives through 2030, after which control would be returned to the state’s independent commission.
While Munger Jr and others have criticized the measure for further entrenching Democratic control over the state, Newsom has argued his party needs to “fight fire with fire.”
“Democrats can’t just sit there and act holier than thou while we watch our democracy be totally degraded,” Newsom wrote in a recent Facebook post.
“This Implication Is Not Correct”
As one of the key players behind the California redistricting battle, Munger Jr was recently identified as the top funder of a controversial mailer that was widely circulated to households around the state.
The mailer, which is stylized as an official voter guide, urged California voters to oppose the mid-cycle redistricting in the upcoming special election. It featured quotes from progressive state legislators and organizations that suggested they endorsed the mailer’s message.
But not all of the quotes included in the reader were referring to Newsom’s redistricting plan, which had not yet been announced. And some of the people quoted have since clarified that they do not endorse the mailer’s message and never authorized the coalition’s use of their comments.
That includes a quote from Gloria Chun Hoo, president of the League of Women Voters of California, appearing to endorse the campaign for the no vote.
“California has become a national model for independent redistricting,” it reads. “Let’s protect the integrity of our democratic process and reject the dangerous idea of mid-cycle redistricting.”
On August 21, after the mailers had reached households across the state, the League of Women Voters of California released a statement distancing itself from the flyer and its content. “You may have received a mailer from ‘Protect Voters First’ about the redistricting ballot initiative this November. By naming our organization and quoting Gloria Chun Hoo, the mailer wrongly implies that the League of Women Voters of California is part of their coalition and endorses the information contained in the flyer. This implication is not correct — we are not part of that coalition. The League of Women Voters of California did not authorize this action,” the statement reads.
The mailer also features a quote from Darius Kemp, executive director of nonpartisan government accountability group California Common Cause, stating, “Point blank, this is a dangerous move. We know independent redistricting works because California has been the national leader for years. We can’t afford to put our state’s democracy on the line during a time of national instability.”
But in a recent update, Common Cause’s national organization noted it is not opposing Proposition 50 because it complies with all six of its fairness standards for mid-decade redistricting. In comparison, Common Cause determined that the recently passed redistricting in Texas failed to meet its fairness criteria.
“This moment is not only about countering immediate threats,” the organization wrote in a recent policy statement. “It is an urgent call to expand the movement for fair representation, grow public demand for structural change, and strengthen the alliances needed to achieve it.”
The other individuals quoted on the anti-redistricting measure — California assemblymember Alex Lee (D-24), a democratic socialist and chair of the California Legislative Progressive Caucus; Jeanne Raya, the former chair of the California Citizens Redistricting Committee; and LeBron Hill, an opinion writer at the Sacramento Bee — declined to respond to questions from the Lever.
A History of Deception
The mailer is not the first time that Munger Jr has backed efforts that received blowback for deceptive practices. Despite his projected image as a nonpartisan “good government” advocate, he’s donated to numerous ideological organizations that have been accused of misleading conduct.
From 2004 to 2015, he donated $70,000 to First Resort (later renamed Third Box), an antiabortion group operating “crisis pregnancy centers” in the California Bay Area. Abortion rights advocates and critics contend that these centers coerce patients out of having an abortion under the guise of providing free health services, and the city of San Francisco eventually passed a law prohibiting these clinics from engaging in what officials argued was misleading advertising.
Munger Jr has also used his wealth to attempt to reduce the labor movement’s political influence in California politics — efforts that again appeared to use misleading tactics in a bid to appeal to the state’s liberal voter base.
Back in 2012, Munger Jr donated $33,029,077 to a committee supporting California’s Proposition 32, one of three failed ballot measures that would have banned the state’s unions from using members’ dues to support political activities, a move that would have severely weakened labor’s capacity to influence state politics.
The measure, unlike its two predecessors (Proposition 75 in 2005 and Proposition 226 in 1998), was slammed for using deceptive tactics to appear ideologically neutral.
In an effort to appear fair to both labor unions and corporations in the state, the measure would have also barred companies from collecting funds from employees for political purposes. But according to critics, since corporations don’t collect membership dues like a union, the legislation would primarily impact the state’s unions.
Munger Jr has also provided financial support to multiple evangelical organizations that aim to further integrate Christianity into school campuses and the US legal system.
He reportedly donated $3,400 to the Christian Legal Society, an association of lawyers that celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade’s abortion protections and provided an amicus brief in support of Joseph Kennedy, a Washington football coach who was fired for leading prayers on the field.
Munger Jr also contributed nearly $83,000 to Campus Crusade for Christ (now known as Cru). The conversion-therapy-promoting organization seeks to promote campus ministries on college, middle, and high school campuses and has taught that “same-sex attraction is contrary to God’s design for human sexuality.”
The state’s redistricting battle is shaping up to be a costly endeavor. The campaign in favor of the redistricting plan recently received a $1 million donation from the California State Council of the Service Employees International Union, which represents state and local public employees, health care employees, and other workers, as well as $300,000 from Andrew Hauptman, founder of private investment firm Andell Holdings.
No matter the outcome, California’s redistricting fight is another instance of wealthy megadonors shaping democracy — and Charles Munger Jr is leading the charge.