Texas fired the first shot. In June 2025, Republicans there pushed through mid-decade redistricting designed to guarantee themselves five new seats in Congress. They didn’t even pretend this was about fairness or democracy. It was a power grab, pure and simple. Texas Democrats were so outraged they left the state in protest, breaking quorum in an attempt to block the vote. Republicans threatened them with arrest to force their return, even though such threats could not legally be enforced. In the end, the GOP forced the maps through anyway.
If Republicans actually knew how to govern, if they put the work into writing policies that truly benefited all Americans, they wouldn’t have to cheat their way into office. But that’s exactly what they keep doing. Instead of meeting people’s needs with healthcare, housing, or fair wages, they double down on voter suppression and gerrymandering.
The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 to stop states from silencing Black voters through racist maps and barriers to the ballot.
And here’s the bitter irony, in 2013, the Supreme Court sent two very different messages about equality. On one hand, the Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor, a landmark decision that opened the door to marriage equality. That same summer, I asked my wife to marry me. On the other hand, the Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. Chief Justice John Roberts claimed things had “changed dramatically,” that federal protections against racist disenfranchisement were no longer needed because America had elected its first Black president.
The reality is that Roberts opened the floodgates for a new wave of voter suppression, with states like Texas rushing to impose discriminatory voter ID laws and redraw districts to their advantage.
From Jim Crow to Shelby County v. Holder to the latest Texas maps, the pattern is the same: when Republicans cannot win fairly, they rewrite the rules. That is why California is stepping in with Proposition 50, not as a perfect solution but as a necessary defense.
California cannot afford to sit quietly while the right rigs the rules. Proposition 50 is our chance to fight back. On November 4, voters will decide whether to approve new congressional maps that would net Democrats five seats, the same number Republicans just stole in Texas. It is not ideal. It is not how redistricting should normally be done. But it is the fight we have been dragged into.
For too long, Democrats have clung to the fantasy of bipartisanship. We talk about reaching across the aisle like it is still 1975. But today, when you reach across the aisle, the only thing that comes back is a bloody stub. Republicans have made it clear they will burn down every democratic norm to cling to power.
Look at Texas. Rep. Jasmine Crockett was literally drawn out of her district, while Democrats like Marc Veasey and Greg Casar saw their constituencies stacked, cracked and packed to dilute Black and Latino voting power. That is not a compromise. That is sabotage.
Fortunately for Crockett, the Constitution only requires members of Congress to live in the state, not in the specific district. She can still run, but it does not erase the harm. Voters lose continuity, communities lose their chosen representative, and power brokers get to shuffle the deck for partisan advantage.
And, unlike Texas, California built safeguards to stop that kind of gamesmanship. Our Citizens Redistricting Commission was created to protect voters, not politicians. Prop 50 does not dismantle that system, it temporarily adjusts it. And here is the crucial difference: the voters of California are deciding. In Texas, gerrymandering was imposed by politicians behind closed doors. In California, the people get the final say.
You can tell from the television ads that Republicans are scared. The opposition to Prop 50 is not a broad grassroots movement. It is almost entirely bankrolled by one man, Charles T. Munger Jr., a physicist whose father, Charlie Munger Sr., was Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner at Berkshire Hathaway.
As of early September, Munger Jr. has poured 10 million dollars into the “No on Prop 50” campaign, which makes up virtually the entire war chest for the opposition. His committee, Protect Voters First, is paying for the slick television ads and glossy mailers that have already started flooding California homes. Another group, Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab, led by former California Republican Party chair Jessica Millan Patterson, is providing political cover. But the reality is that this fight is being financed almost entirely by Munger’s inherited fortune.
This is a man who has never had to work a day in his life, who has never known what it means to struggle or worry about paying bills. His wealth insulates him from everything. No matter what happens with redistricting, he will remain protected and untouched. The same cannot be said for working people, for communities of color, or for the voters whose voices are at risk of being silenced if Texas’s gerrymander goes unchecked and California fails to respond.
The money may come from Munger, but the political machine is fronted by Patterson, the former chair of the California Republican Party and a loyal Trump ally. Patterson now leads the group Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab, giving Munger’s millions a partisan megaphone. Together they represent the same old formula: concentrated wealth funding ads, with Republican operatives providing the talking points.
It is not about fairness or democracy. It is about protecting Republican power at all costs.
And let me be clear. This is by no means an endorsement of Gavin Newsom. But I am glad that someone in Democratic leadership is finally done playing around with fascists. As I have said before, we do not have time for the gentle parenting of fascists or for purity politics, not when people’s lives are literally on the line.
The murder of Charlie Kirk only makes this moment more dire. The fascist authoritarian propaganda machine is already rearing up, pushing faux outrage and weaponizing tragedy to further erode our rights. If we do not fight back structurally and strategically through measures like Prop 50, we risk watching our democracy hollow out while the other side seizes every opportunity to consolidate power.
Yes, partisan gerrymandering is undemocratic. And I hear and respect the voices saying California shouldn’t respond in kind to what Texas is doing. But what are our alternatives?
Too often, those voices come from people who have never had their rights taken away, who have never been convicted of a crime because of the color of their skin or their economic status, who have never fought for 25 years just to have their record cleared. For people like that, democracy is an abstract principle. For people like me, and for those who have gone through even worse, democracy is a matter of survival.
Here’s what matters: Prop 50 is not a permanent fix. It is temporary by design. If it passes, the Legislature’s maps will be used only in the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections. After the 2030 Census, California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission will once again take over and draw new maps for 2031 and beyond. This is about defending ourselves now, not dismantling the system we built to protect voters in the future.
I am voting Yes on Prop 50 because I refuse to let Republicans decide that my state’s voice does not matter. Fairness means balance, and right now the only way to restore balance is to push back. On November 4, we have a choice: roll over while Texas rigs the game, or stand up and fight.
I know where I stand. Where do you?
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