Berkshire Hathaway Heir Is Pouring Millions Into Fight Against Gov. Newsom’s Redistricting Proposal

A Berkshire Hathaway heir is spending millions of his late's father's money to stop California Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan to "gerrymander" the state in favor of Democrats.

"Gerrymanders are a cancer, and mid-decade gerrymanders are a metastasis," Charlie Munger Jr. wrote last week in an opinion piece for The New York Times.

"If we trade away California’s independent redistricting for a partisan power grab, we kill the cure. We send a dangerous message to the rest of the country that reform is conditional and principles can be abandoned when they are inconvenient. That is how cynicism spreads, trust in government erodes and citizen voices fade."

His father, Charlie Munger, was the longtime business partner of legendary investor Warren Buffett and had a net worth of about $3 billion at the time of his death, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Unlike Buffett, who has always said that his three children would not receive wealth directly but rather through philanthropic foundations that they control, such as the one Peter Buffett is using to reinvigorate Kingston, NY, Munger had said during his lifetime that he'd already given his six children and two stepchildren half of his fortune.

Now Munger vowed to use a portion of the inheritance left by his father to fight to stop the redistricting, according to Bloomberg News, citing a confidential source.

He has already spent $30 million on his campaign, according to the outlet.

Why the attempted remapping?

Newsom is trying to tit-for-tat with Texas, whose state Senate approved redrawing its maps in favor of Republicans, a move that was backed by President Donald Trump.

The Democratic governor called his proposal, set for a Nov. 4 vote, "beautiful perfect maps," a play on Trump's "big beautiful bill."

California’s political map could reshape Congress, and even the 2028 presidential race, which Newsom is expected to enter.

Munger isn't the only rich man in the redistricting fray. Billionaires Michael Moritz and Reed Hastings have reportedly donated to the Newsom side.

Munger, a Republican and a large donor to that party, has also lashed out at the Texas remapping. He was an architect of California’s rules setting an independent redistricting commission.

"California’s commission was created to rise above those temptations—and we must defend it now or watch the promise of fair representation collapse into just another broken pledge," he wrote in the NYT.

"Charles Munger passed a number of meaningful reforms in California and has said that he will vigorously defend them," Amy Thoma Tan, a spokesperson for the Munger-funded anti-redistricting group Protect Voters First, told SFGATE.

"He believes that citizens should draw lines, not politicians. He opposes this attempt to take that right away."

What will redistricting mean for real estate?

California is one of the most expensive states in the nation, and has a well-known housing shortage crisis.

The median list price for July in the coastal state is $750,000, almost double the national of $429,990, according to Realtor.com® data.

Bicoastal agent Cara Ameer, who sells in California and Florida, says that if the governor is successful in his remapping, it won't have much genuine effect on real estate.

"Redistricting may see people of certain political views move out of those areas that are now blue in California or look to migrate to a red state as a result of massive redistricting efforts," she tells Realtor.com.

"But moving involves a lot of effort and expense and may not be as easy as simply picking up and moving. People have jobs and lives and this too may pass. The pendulum always swings politically depending on what season things are in and it could eventually moderate depending on who the leadership in California is in the future. 

"For those that are bothered by this enough to move, they just might do it. Everyone else? May continue to stay put."

Khari Washington of 1st United Realty & Mortgage in Loma Linda, CA, agrees that Newsom's plan may not have any effect on prices, but hopes it protects vulnerable voters.

"California has long been known as a blue-leaning state, and for just as many people who don't want redistricting, there are many Democrats who are happy that Democrats are finally fighting fire with fire."

"Redistricting has been done in red-leaning states to disadvantage people of color for a long time, so many Democrats are tired of the 'they go low, we go high.' People of color have been underrepresented and are fighting for their lives, so idealistic gestures of a utopian way to approach redistricting aren't appealing anymore," he says.