photo credit: State of California
New U.S. House of Representative districts in Northern California as approved by voters in Prop 50. 

The June primary election is less than 2 months away, and it'll be the first time California voters will cast a ballot for newly-drawn Congressional seats, courtesy of Prop 50.

How will the new maps will show up on ballots in the North Bay?

Starting in 2027, Sonoma County will be represented by three members of Congress - one of them in a brand-new seat.

The new House of Representatives maps were approved by California voters last year with the passage of Proposition 50.

It splits northeast, southeast, and west Sonoma County between the new 1st, 2nd, and 4th House districts.

The redrawn lines put northeast Sonoma County, including Santa Rosa and Windsor, and Mendocino communities like Ukiah, into the new 1st district,

The district stretches north through Mendocino and Lake counties, and east to Tehama, Glenn, Lassen, Butte, Plumas, and Sierra counties.

The new map is seen as more favorable for Democrats like State Senator Mike McGuire, a Democrat from Healdsburg who is running for the seat.

There is a giant special election, a big battle going on in rural Northern California," McGuire said in a recent campaign video. "For the first time in 50 years, we can flip the first Congressional District from red to blue."

The current District 1 map favors Republicans, like State Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Republican from Yuba City, also running for the House seat.

"As many of you know I've decided to run for Congressman Doug LaMalfa's seat, finish out that term," Gallagher said in a recent campaign video. "Biggest thing we need to get out there is that people need to get out to vote June 2nd."

Gallagher and McGuire are facing off in not one, but at least two separate elections this year. To start, they'll be on the ballot in the June 2nd primary for the new 1st House District. The top two vote-getters there will go on to the general election in November.

Then on August 4th, they'll go before voters in a special election to fill out the remainder of the late Representative Doug LaMalfa's term.

To make it more confusing, the August 4th special election is being contested in the pre-Prop 50 district; on a map that heavily favors Republicans.

While he is running to fill the remainder of LaMalfa's term, McGuire is not a resident of the current 1st District, although there are no district residency requirements for Congress.

At the same time, Audrey Denney, a Democrat from Chico, which lies in both the old and new District 1 map is also running in both the June 2nd primary and August 4th special election.

"I've literally made a chart of all of the different potential outcomes that could happen after June 2nd and there's like five different things," Denney said in a recent interview with KRCB. "I could be on one ballot, but not the other. I could be on both ballots. I could be on neither ballot...but one thing that I do know is that I have been fighting for this community in the North State in this part of the world since 2017 when I first decided to run."

Denney lost out to McGuire for the California Democratic Party nomination for the June primary, but in previous runs against LaMalfa in 2018 and 2020, she received over 130,000 votes each time in District 1.

Incumbent Representative Jared Huffman is running for the newly drawn 2nd District, which still covers West Sonoma County, as well as western Mendocino county, plus Marin, Humboldt, Trinity, Del Norte, Shasta, Siskiyou, and Modoc counties.

Incumbent Mike Thompson is running for the new 4th district, which includes southeast Sonoma County and southeast Lake County, as well as Napa, Yuba, Sutter, and Colusa counties, and parts of Yolo, Sacramento, and Placer counties.