Voters in California on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved Prop 50, a ballot measure backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that allowed him and fellow Democrats in control of the state legislature in Sacramento to redraw electoral maps to create up to five additional Democratic-leaning congressional seats in direct response to Texas and other states’ own similar efforts to gerrymander in favor of Republicans. It’s very good that Californians passed it, but the best outcome would have been that new maps weren’t needed because the GOP states retreated.
Instead of redistricting for the 2026 elections, a terrible idea pushed by Donald Trump, just leave the current lines in place in every state in the union and wait until the next census, in 2030, to change the maps.
Trump got Republicans in Texas and North Carolina and elsewhere to subvert the will of the voters and seek predetermined outcomes. So now Democrats in the biggest state have replied in kind.
We are all losing this battle, but the blame for this war lies with the Republicans. Every Democratic mid-decade redistricting effort has been an attempt to even the scales as the GOP seeks to engineer a permanent majority for itself at the explicit direction of Trump, who has always believed that he has a sort of inherent right to rule even when electoral preferences don’t match.
It’s rich that Republicans in California are already filing suit to overturn the will of the voting public in that state. They will have little luck, just like the outpowered Democrats in Texas. Two wrongs doesn’t make it right. But one wrong can’t go unresponded to.
All that is needed for California and the other blue states pursuing this gerrymander to back down and recommit to independent restricting processes following each decennial census is for Texas and the other red states that set off this battle to back down themselves. That would be the best outcome for everyone, rather than this tit-for-tat that serves no one.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen time and again that attempting to ignore or reach a compromise with Trump’s more acute authoritarian efforts only tends to only embolden him. Democrats have no choice but to stand firm.
This week’s wave election, in which Democrats significantly overperformed expectations in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races as well as other state-level races in Pennsylvania, Georgia, even Mississippi, should really give statehouse Republicans around the country pause about the wisdom of this particular agenda. Are they really sure that they can actually gerrymander their way to comfortable majorities?
Have they considered the possibility that Democrats may well overperform in these districts and nullify some of their advantages, while also picking up additional seats in safer blue states?
The problem with using redistricting as a political weapon is roughly the same problem as having embraced the MAGA wing of the party: they might think it is electorally useful for now, but at some point, you just can’t control it. Let’s just all nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand. GOP legislators should take a deep breath and reverse course, maintaining the maps that were in place as of last year. If they want to win, they should win on their arguments, not by trying to pick their voters.
