We did it! You all did it! Proposition 45 has been defeated. As of early this morning (11/9/2026), the No votes are at 55.9% compared to 44.1% for Yes votes, which puts us ahead by over 1.1 million votes with 77% of the ballots counted. And, we expect this lead to continue growing as the remainder of the votes are counted.
CEJA and CEJA members, led by Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, Center for Race, Poverty & the Environment, Communities for a Better Environment, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Physicians for a Social Responsibility - Los Angeles, and People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights, have spent this year advancing key moments for the No on Prop 45. CEJA members have led and supported efforts to secure the California Democratic Party endorsement, partnered to build a coalition of over 600 organizations, amplified the importance of voting No on Prop 45 in English, Spanish, and Chinese media, held rallies across the state, and led the field efforts to talk to our neighbors and fellow voters in English and Spanish to Vote NO on Prop 45 in the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles, Fresno, Merced, and Bakersfield.
Our collective work shows what people power can do! CEJA members and allies came together to form a deep, varied coalition to push back against the Chamber of Commerce and shameless corporate interests and say that “you cannot sacrifice our health, our homes, our lives, our communities, and our environment for your selfish gains, your bottom lines, your greed!”
Prop 45 has been 2026’s biggest threat to environmental justice (EJ) communities and to all Californians who do not want polluting projects where they live. Prop 45 would have dismantled the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a bedrock law protecting community and environmental health.
CEQA is the only tool that ensures the community has a seat at the table when new projects are proposed for their neighborhoods – it gives impacted community members a chance to have a say in their neighborhood’s planning and development, so that a project coming into the community actually benefits, and not harms, the residents. It is one of the few policies in California based on a truly democratic process whereby people’s voices are valued and heard. It’s a critical tool to chip away at the institutional racism that is embedded in planning and zoning laws that have shaped our country, state, and our cities.
And that is exactly why CEQA has constantly been under attack from corporate interests and Big Oil. They needed a way to conduct their business, unchecked and with impunity, without consideration for their impacts on the surrounding communities. The twin crises of environmental racism and housing unaffordability that disproportionately impact low-income communities of color cannot be addressed without the analysis and transparency that CEQA has brought us for over 50 years, and we just fought a hard fight to make sure that it can keep doing so.
Up until this point, and even during this year as we organized to defeat Prop 45, EJ communities had already been fighting off state and municipal policy proposals that have increasingly chipped away at CEQA review on projects, including those that impact EJ communities. But, by far, Prop 45 has been the most glaring, egregious example of this corporate greed and zeal.
Now that this fight to defeat Prop 45 has ended in victory, we can pause to breathe, enjoy the moment, and celebrate this huge achievement.
And then, we get back to work. And we get back to work with an even larger base of allies who agree that public health and environmental justice are not just worth fighting for, but are an absolute basic human right that everyone must have. We know that, as with any larger united front coalition, there will be differences in approach and in prioritizing needs. But, as this fight has shown, we can work through it by centering the voices and leadership of those most vulnerable to the cumulative impacts of a proposed policy or development project. Practicing such deep democracy, a foundational principle of the environmental justice movement, in our process with external allies, will deepen those relationships and continue to shift the larger narrative away from a focus on corporate interests to that of public health and environmental justice.
Next year, we anticipate corporate interests will try again to chip away at CEQA and other protections through legislation, falsely under the claim of improving “affordability,” so our defense work will need to continue. But we also have the opportunity to take our wins against Prop 45 to propel efforts to address incompatible land uses and ensure full environmental review for industrial projects. In fact, in another CEJA victory that builds on past wins, last year we passed legislation creating a deadline by which local jurisdictions need to develop and adopt an Environmental Justice Element, regardless of whether they have concurrently amended other general plan elements. It would also now require, and set specific standards for, public participation in the process.
All of these wins show that CEJA is poised to keep moving forward, not just by defending against attacks on our communities, but also by strengthening CEQA and other related protections to repair and redress the harms of environmental racism. The voices of frontline communities will continue to lead our advocacy and shape the future that all Californians need – a place where everyone lives in and has access to green and healthy communities, and where the economy is regenerative, healing the land and healing the people.
