The Case for California Redistricting
Today, California DSA (to which I am now an LA delegate) voted to endorse Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act. Prop 50 will be on the ballot in a special November 4 election this year and will redraw California federal congressional districts to (frankly) shut out current Republican seats.
As a former longtime Austinite, I’ve seen firsthand what Republican gerrymandering does. Austin—one of the most left-leaning cities in the South—was deliberately carved into multiple congressional districts, each stretching out hundreds of miles into deep-red territory–some all the way to the border with Mexico. The effect was simple: no matter how the people of Austin voted, they would never elect a representative who actually reflected the city’s majority in full.
That taught me what’s at stake. Gerrymandering isn’t just an abstract fight about maps—it’s about whether working-class communities can have any real say in shaping their future.
That wasn’t an accident. It was a calculated assault on democracy. It's a naked move openly embraced by Texas state senator Phil King (R-Weatherford): “I did not take race into consideration when drawing this map, I drew it based on what would better perform for Republican candidates.”
In states like Texas and Florida, they’ve built maps that guarantee minoritarian rule: the Far Right dominates Congress even without majority support.
California has already been in the crosshairs. Trump unleashed mass ICE raids on our neighborhoods in Los Angeles, terrorized farmworkers in the Central Valley, mobilized active duty marines to occupy us, and made open threats against our cities. If Republicans lock down Congress through putting a big fat thumb on the scale in 2026, those attacks will only escalate—with California’s communities bearing the brunt.
Should We Care?
Some may ask (and rightfully because the Democratic Party is a shitshow): why should we care at all about this? Why do we need a dog in this fight?
Because the fight over maps is a political fight over not letting rightwing authoritarianism expand. Gerrymandering is the Right’s most powerful weapon for locking working people out of politics. It’s the natural progression of a broken two-party system and first-past-the-post voting method.
Backing redistricting shouldn’t mean tailing Democratic strategists. Gavin Newsom is a centrist turd who has moved vicious campaigns against the homeless and stripped environmental protections as part of the hyper-YIMBY Abundance agenda. We should have no illusions about the party establishment and what it wants out of this (which–let's be blunt and real–is the same kind of thumb-placing).
But this moment gives us a chance to both take a realpolitik move to reduce the GOP advantage from Texas gerrymandering and to agitate and push beyond the rigged two-party system. We should also back Prop 50 but we also can and need to demand more fundamental reforms in CA: proportional representation, multimember districts, ranked-choice voting, and political pluralism. (California DSA’s endorsement commits us to this).
Unions are already mobilizing for redistricting. I don’t want to overstate it, but this is an opening. By standing with unions in this fight, we can again strengthen ties that are essential for building a Left-Labor pole in California politics—exactly the kind of force we need for the battles to come in 2028 and beyond. New district lines could also open space for us to run strong DSA “cadre” candidates for Congress, giving working people real choices at the ballot box.
The Right wants to lock us into permanent minority rule. Corporate Democrats want to tinker around the edges and only have us move around their banner. We can do something different: fight in the immediate struggle while making the deeper case for democracy, pluralism, and working-class power.