California Prop 40 is on its deathbed. Here's what went wrong

San Francisco Chronicle · Joe Garofoli · 2026-11-05 12:00 UTC

Progressive candidates had a historic night Tuesday. But Proposition 40, the state's billionaire tax, appears on track to fail. What happened?

The looming defeat of Proposition 40 showed that in one way, Texas is far more progressive than California. Or at least better organized on the left.

In Texas, near-trillionaire Elon Musk spent $474 million to keep Republicans in office and inspired the impossible: Democrats won statewide races there for the first time in four decades. In California, meanwhile, a billionaire-led coalition spent nearly $400 million to kill Proposition 40, a proposed tax on their wealth.

“We just proved that all the money in the world is no match for the people of Texas,” Democratic Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico said in his victory speech Tuesday. “We just sent a message to every billionaire megadonor, every trillionaire megadonor.”

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