California must respond to the desperate power grab by Trump and the Texas Republicans.

Fearful of voter backlash against very unpopular GOP legislation, President Trump has easily succeeded in convincing Texas Republicans to further distort that state’s already gerrymandered congressional maps. The Texas redistricting represents a fundamental assault on the principals of representative democracy and is a declaration of political war by the GOP in their effort to create a single party dictatorship.

Texas has imposed the rules by which the rest of us must now play. Proposition 50 is the right response!

How We Got Here

The Republican appointees to the Supreme Court have brought us to this point. So much of where we are today is traceable to the 5-4 vote that elected George W. Bush President in 2000.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (January 21, 2010)

Five justices appointed by Republican presidents voted to define campaign contributions as a form of speech. This set the foundation for the current plutocratic takeover of our elections. Spending in the 2024 presidential campaign reached $15.9 billion, nearly tripling the $5.7 billion from 2020 and far exceeding the $2.4 billion spent in 2008 before Citizens United.

Shelby County v. Holder (June 25, 2013)

The same five justices ended federal oversight in states with long records of racial discrimination in voting. This vote has resulted in increased voter suppression, making registration and voting harder for low-income individuals and urban voters in the South. As a result, voters face long lines and are prohibited from receiving food or water while waiting. These laws have had a disproportionate effect on Black voters in the South.

Rucho v. Common Cause (June 27, 2019)

Six years later, five Republican-appointed judges ruled that federal courts lack constitutional authority to address partisan gerrymandering by state legislatures and courts, provided that the maps discriminate politically, not racially. In the South, where about 85% of Black voters register as Democrats, partisan gerrymandering effectively equates to racial gerrymandering. The five disingenuous justices were aware that proving racial gerrymandering in federal court is challenging if not impossible. Federal legislation would be the only way for the country to obtain fairer, less partisan maps. Republicans, however, have refused to consider such legislation.

Trump v. United States (February 28, 2024)

The six Republican-appointed judges on the Supreme Court made it virtually impossible for the Department of Justice to hold President Trump accountable for the act of sedition he promoted on January 6, 2021. Justice Sotomayor declared that this ruling “makes a mockery of the principle . . . that no man is above the law.”

Democrats Respond but Fail (so far) at the Federal Level

In March 2021, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley sponsored a bill to restrict partisan gerrymandering, but it was blocked by a Republican filibuster with support from Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. The legislation proposed independent commissions for drawing congressional districts nationwide, included public participation in the process, set national standards for voter registration and voting rights, and aimed to limit dark money in campaigns. Republican legislators, however, did not support the implementation of a federal, non-partisan standard for congressional redistricting or measures to guarantee that all tax-paying citizens could access the ballot. As a result, the new congressional maps drawn after the 2020 census are heavily gerrymandered in favor of the Republican Party.

A Brief Overview of the Results of Gerrymandering

According to estimates from the Brennan Center for Justice, partisan gerrymandering resulted in Republicans gaining 16 additional seats in the House of Representatives in the 2022 elections. Republicans oversaw map drawing in 44% of congressional districts, while Democrats did so in just 17%. Commissions, divided governments, or courts determined the boundaries of the remaining 39 percent of the 435 congressional seats. In 2022, partisan gerrymandering gave Republicans 23 extra seats and Democrats 7. By 2024, Democrats gained two more seats, leaving Republicans with a 14-seat advantage from gerrymandering.

Why Proposition 50 is Necessary

American democracy faces a crisis. Here is the tautology: an unrepresentative Senate blocked fair House representation with the filibuster yet bypassed the filibuster to appoint Supreme Court justices who uphold partisan gerrymandering. As the scope of constitutional challenges continues to expand, the options for resolving them become more limited. If Proposition 50 fails, the United States will continue to slide into a single party state under the control of an unconstrained plutocracy. It might proceed anyway, especially as more red states get involved.

The new Texas maps say everything. When in June President Trump solicited Texas Governor Greg Abbott to convene the state legislature to revise the existing gerrymandered district maps to secure five additional seats, state Republican leaders promptly complied with the request. The new Texas maps, passed on August 29, bring the racism into bold relief. While Whites comprise only 40 percent of Texas’ population, the new maps put them in control of 73 percent of the congressional districts. It is unlikely the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court will see any problem with this.

This forces California to respond in kind. But plutocratic opponents of Proposition 50 have pledged to defeat it, with Charles Munger Jr. contributing $10 million and Kevin McCarthy aiming to raise $100 million. Their costly opposition mailers are now arriving almost daily.

What We Can Do

Proposition 50 aims to return public control to federal elections and reduce financial corruption. It requires only a simple majority to pass, and polls indicate it has a narrow lead. Californians appear to understand Trump’s power grab and see the need to support a temporary suspension of the Citizens Redistricting Commission created by Proposition 11 in 2008. There is precedent for such a proposition. Most recently, Proposition 3 repealed the prohibition of same-sex marriage established by Proposition 8 in 2008.

We can win this because CALIFORNIA IS NOT TEXAS — with all due respect to Texas Democrats! The campaign will focus on a strong Democratic turnout and specifically target Democrat-leaning independents. In California, voter registration is distributed as follows: 47% Democratic, 28% Republican, and 21% No Party Preference. But this advantage is not as great as it seems. This is a challenging request, since it means asking Californians to compromise their basic sense of fairness. While two wrongs don’t make a right, all parties must play by the same rules in politics.

It will require volunteers to dedicate their time, talents, hearts, imaginations, and money to this campaign. Phone banking begins on September 6; canvassing starts on the 13th. To sign on for volunteering, please to go stopelectionrigging.com.