Gavin Newsom pushed Proposition 50 through California to rip redistricting power away from an independent commission and hand it to the state government — all so Democrats could draw maps that would erase Republican seats. One of the top targets was Rep. Kevin Kiley, whose old 3rd District got carved up and dumped into the newly redrawn 6th Congressional District. There was just one tiny problem: Kiley is winning anyway.

You literally cannot make this up. The man spent political capital, got voters to approve Proposition 50, hijacked the redistricting process, and STILL couldn't beat one Republican congressman. That's not governance. That's a blooper reel.

With roughly 60% of votes counted in California's 6th Congressional District, Kiley — now running as an independent — is leading the pack at 27% with 28,362 votes. Republican Michael Stansfield sits in second at 22% with 23,493 votes. Democrat Richard Pan trails both of them at 21% with 22,385 votes. Two other Democrats, Thien Ho and Lauren Tomlinson, pulled 11,603 and 10,987 votes respectively — splitting the liberal vote like a log through a wood chipper.

Let that sink in. Newsom's team drew this district specifically to favor Democrats. They had the pens, the data, and the power. And the top two finishers heading to the general election look like they'll be Kiley and a Republican.

Pan — a former state senator and the Democrats' best hope — can't even crack into second place. The entire Democratic field fractured itself into irrelevance. Five candidates fighting over the same pool of progressive voters while Kiley consolidated the right and grabbed independents who are sick of Sacramento's games.

This is what happens when you govern by vendetta instead of competence. Newsom didn't redraw the map to serve Californians. He redrew it to punish a political enemy. The quiet part was always loud — Kiley had been a thorn in the governor's side for years, calling out his COVID hypocrisy and Sacramento's one-party dysfunction.

So what did Newsom's "genius" redistricting accomplish? It put Kiley in a district where he's now the frontrunner by five points. Brilliant strategy, governor.

California's top-two primary system means the two highest vote-getters advance to the general election regardless of party. If the current numbers hold — and about 55% of the vote has been counted according to Decision Desk — Kiley and Stansfield could both advance. That would give voters in the new 6th District a general election between two candidates to the right of the Democratic Party.

In a district Newsom personally engineered to be blue.

We talk a lot about the left "fortifying" elections. Well, here's what fortification looks like when you're bad at it. You spend years seizing redistricting authority from an independent commission, you rally voters behind Proposition 50 to make it legal, you deploy every mapmaking trick in the book — and Kevin Kiley still walks through the front door with a five-point lead and a grin.

Newsom has been failing upward his entire career. But even by his standards, this is a masterclass in self-defeat. They literally redrew the map to beat this guy.

It didn't work.