Sebastopol's new congressional district stretches from Sebastopol to the Nevada border
Sebastopol is now a part of a newly configured District 1, while much of west county will remain in Jared Huffman’s redesigned 2nd District
There’s an old saying that “All politics is local,” but California’s Prop. 50, which was approved overwhelmingly in the Nov. 4 election, was designed with purely national goals in mind, as part of an electoral battle between California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and President Donald Trump. It all started when Texas began an effort to shift its congressional district lines to create five new Republican-dominated districts that would shore up the Republican edge in Congress and, by extension, congressional support for President Trump. Prop. 50 was Gov. Newsom’s and the Democratic Party’s response.
Sebastopol voters woke up the day after the election and found themselves in a new district—District 1—that stretches north from Sebastopol, then east all the way to the Nevada border. It includes the west county towns of Graton and Forestville, as well as Windsor and Healdsburg.
Their neighbors west of town, meanwhile, remain in District 2—Jared Huffman’s newly configured district, which covers all of the coastal areas north of the Golden Gate to the Oregon border. In western Sonoma County, the communities of Occidental, Bodega, Bodega Bay, Guerneville, Rio Nido, Monte Rio and all of the Sonoma Coast will remain in Huffman’s 2nd District.
In West County, near Sebastopol, the east-west dividing line between the new 1st and 2nd districts appears to run along Elphick to Watertrough, then west on Bodega Hwy. to Ferguson, zigzagging to Mill Station to Sullivan, then west on Green Valley Road, until it hooks up with Hwy. 116. From there, it diverts to Odd Fellows Park Road, crossing the Russian River near Korbel Winery and heading up McPeak Road, after which it follows a stream across rough country to Sweetwater Springs Road, where it heads west, leaving all of rural Healdsburg, Lake Sonoma and Cloverdale in the newly formed 1st District.
These districts are part of the new Prop. 50 voting map that will be used in next year’s 2026 National Election. The proposed map can be found on the California State Assembly Committee of Elections website. The interactive map provides a specific street address location search.
Sebastopol and West County will now have two elected representatives in the 2026 U.S. Congress: incumbent Rep. Jared Huffman, who has represented the 2nd Congressional District since 2012, and whoever wins the 2026 election to represent District 1.
At the beginning of this week, Congressman Huffman said he was still “dialing in the contours” of his new district. “I haven’t seen a full, definitive map yet, but I know I will be losing parts of Sebastopol and Petaluma,” he told the Sebastopol Times as he was getting ready to return to Washington, D.C. to help re-open the federal government after 43 days of shutdown.
Sonoma County Registrar of Voters Evelyn Mendez cautioned this week that all maps remain “preliminary” while proofing and other work is being finalized ahead of a Dec. 19 deadline to have final maps for the 2026 election year.
“We got a good jump start on the process, and our team continues to be at work,” said Mendez, who has been in the registrar’s office for 32 years and took over the top job in her department earlier this year.
In 2026, Sebastopol voters will vote for a new representative to the U.S. Congress along with voters from Ukiah, Chico, Red Bluff and Susanville and other Republican-majority communities in Lassen, Tehama, Glenn and Modoc counties. (All of those counties voted against Prop. 50, while 74 percent of Sonoma County voters favored the ballot question.)
The 2026 Race for California’s 1st District
Republican incumbent Doug LaMalfa of Butte County will be challenged in his post-Prop. 50 district (District 1) by several challengers, including Healdsburg Democrat Mike McGuire, who is the current president pro tem of the California Senate. McGuire officially announced his candidacy Thursday, Nov. 13, after weeks of speculation leading up to the Prop. 50 special election.
McGuire is very well known to Sebastopol voters. He served as a Sonoma County supervisor from 2011 to 2014, after serving as a mayor and councilmember for the city of Healdsburg from 2004 to 2010. He has been in office in Sacramento since 2015, first in the Assembly and now the State Senate.
At a news conference in Sacramento on Thursday, McGuire said, “This (new) district is big, it’s rural, and now more than ever, it needs a fighter. I know these roads. I know these towns. And I know what it takes to deliver for you and your family.”
In his launch video, McGuire said, “I’m running for Congress to do what I’ve always done: fight to make life more affordable, grow rural jobs, help farmers thrive, and modernize our kids’ schools. I’ll fight to protect your health care, to keep our rural health centers and hospitals open, and to make sure that our rural communities get their fair share.”
McGuire, 46, has been a vocal opponent of most of Donald Trump’s agenda related to immigration, climate change, civil liberties and most domestic policies. “Don’t worry, I will always stand up to the destructive policies of Donald Trump,” he said in the video. “I’m all in — every damn day.”
“It’s time for us to fight to take this country back and it starts right here in Northern California,” McGuire said this week.
McGuire was seen as an instant front-runner in a challenge to LaMalfa for next November’s election.
Running in a re-configured District 2
Meanwhile, Huffman will be inheriting thousands of new constituents in his re-election bid next year. His new 2nd District will include Republican-majority areas, including the city of Redding and Shasta, Siskiyou and Modoc counties.
“I’ll be losing 20 points of Democrat-majority, but I’m already familiar with parts of ‘deep red’ California,” the six-term congressman said. “My district always has been a very complex district with many interests.”
Huffman said his staff has already planned several visits and meetings in his newly configured district. “We’re navigating on how to reach out and meet many new people. I’ve already been representing some of the richest and poorest parts of the nation in one district,” he said.
Huffman is a Marin County resident and was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2012, succeeding Petaluma’s Lynn Woolsey, who retired. He is the top Democrat on the House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources. Before entering politics, he was an environmental and public interest attorney.
While expressing regret about losing parts of Sebastopol from his district, Huffman said having multiple representatives [with the new 1st District] will be a good thing for the local communities.
“We’ll have to see how it shakes out, but I think it has good possibilities,” he said.
What is Supervisor Lynda Hopkins thinking about all this?
Lynda Hopkins, the county supervisor who represents Sebastopol and west county, applauded the outcome of the Prop. 50 election from both a national and local perspective. Before the election, back in August, she expressed reservations about the way it disempowered rural districts, but, despite her qualms, there was never any real doubt about where she stood.
“I supported and voted for Prop. 50 because we need to stop Trump, period,” Hopkins told the Sebastopol Times. “Right now, it’s the billionaires against the rest of us. I hope urban and rural communities alike can come together and realize that. At the top, they’re building ballrooms and marble and gold bathrooms…while taking away food and healthcare from millions of Americans.”
Hopkins also added that she is not interested in moving into national politics as a candidate. “I’m not running for Congress. I have the best job in the world working for West County, and I’m not giving that up that easily.”
Going forward
California’s Prop. 50 will temporarily override the authority of the 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission, which was formed by a voter referendum in 2010 as a non-partisan way of creating electoral districts. That commission will regain its powers after the 2030 U.S. Census. Most states update their various local, state and federal election districts every 10 years, following the latest Census results. California is one of seven states that have an independent citizens’ commission. In most states, re-districting is done by state legislators, and around the country, more partisan redistricting efforts are already in the works.
See an interactive map of California’s post-Prop 50 districts.
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