California's election reforms face rollback as bipartisan groups push to repeal top-two primary

California’s hallmark election reforms—an independent congressional redistricting commission and a top-two primary—are under serious threat as political divisions deepen. A bipartisan coalition has secured permission to gather signatures for a 2028 ballot measure that would scrap the top-two system and return primary slots to party affiliates, a change supporters say would strip 5.4 million independent voters of influence.

Meanwhile, a November vote temporarily suspended the commission’s map-drawing power, a decision framed as a tactical advantage for Democrats and linked to President Trump’s nationwide push to redraw districts. Scholars such as Jessica Levinson and Rick Hasen note that the reforms have not clearly delivered more moderate candidates or reduced partisanship. Party leaders, including Rusty Hicks and Jessica Millan Patterson, now endorse repeal, citing failures to moderate Sacramento politics. Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and donor Charles Munger Jr., who championed the original reforms, have criticized the current push to revert to partisan control.