Socialists Can’t Sit Out the Prop 50 campaign

On the national stage, Republicans are moving to secure minoritarian rule through redistricting efforts in Texas and Missouri. Through this anti-democratic effort, Republicans are poised to pick up six seats in Congress. This November, Californians have the opportunity to challenge these power grabs by passing Prop 50. If passed, the ballot measure will redraw five Republican-held congressional districts in California (CA-1, CA-3, CA-22, CA-41, and CA-48), making them more competitive and friendly to a potential DSA challenger.

Failing to redistrict in California while Republicans redistrict in Texas will cement Republican minoritarian rule in Congress for the foreseeable future and provide a blank check to the Trump administration to continue carrying out their violent and extremist policies. Further, it is likely the 2030 census and subsequent redistricting will heavily favor Republicans in the electoral college through 2040.

Socialists can’t sit this one out! As a national organization, we have a mandate to run five congressional candidates in 2028. Prop 50’s new map further opens the door for DSA challengers in the 2028 cycle. One of these five must come from the West Coast. California has been hit hard by the Trump administration through ICE raids, defunding of social programs, and attacks on healthcare and trans folks. The Golden State is a destination for people seeking a better life. It has been misrepresented by status quo Democratic Party machine politicians who seek only to secure their own power and wealth. We need a 2028 candidate who can fight the fascist right and fully expose the contradictions of the inept Democratic Party apparatus. 

California DSA and chapters endorse Prop 50

On August 23rd, California DSA voted to endorse Prop 50 and create a statewide working group charged with building a DSA canvassing and comms program around the initiative. California DSA will also bottomline a statewide public webinar providing a socialist analysis of why we have arrived at this political moment and how we can emerge from it, and coordinate a DSA Day of Action for participating chapters.

Chapters across the state are throwing down to get Prop 50 passed. Sonoma endorsed Prop 50 on August 25th and is currently looking into doing joint canvasses with their local Working Families Party (WFP). DSA-LA just endorsed the measure locally by majority vote at their September chapter meeting, and has electoral working groups spinning up for the 2026 cycle that can use this as an early exercise. San Diego and Silicon Valley DSA are also exploring endorsement at their upcoming chapter meetings this weekend. Pending endorsement, San Diego DSA is tentatively planning ten canvasses with a target of 2000 doors knocked before election day.

We are only six weeks away from election day, so this will be a relatively short campaign. Aside from passing Prop 50, the primary objective of the CA DSA Prop 50 campaign is to recruit our neighbors to DSA and strengthen our field programs. 

Labor is all in for Prop 50, on the November ballot.

Fascist threat

This ballot initiative is a vehicle to have organizing conversations in our communities about the threat that the fascist right poses to multiracial democracy. As democratic socialists, we want an economy that is democratically controlled by working people and we run candidates who work to advance tenant protections, immigration justice, and the power of organized labor. 

Redistricting is a defensive tactic, and while it will reduce Republican expansion if passed, this measure alone is radically insufficient to respond to the aggregate moment. To respond at scale, we need to organize. This six-week effort gives us an opportunity to ask people to get involved in campaigns that will help involve them as agents in building collective power. DSA members can motivate folks at the doors to not only vote yes on Prop 50, but engage in a longer-term strategy to combat the right by joining DSA.

To join the CA DSA working group, fill out this interest form: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/california-redistricting-working-group-interest-form/