Why rejecting Prop. 50 would save California Democrats from themselves | Opinion
The 2026 campaigns for Congress are truly of historic proportions, and California should be the political incubator of ideas and messages that could resonate with independents and Republicans looking for an alternative to Donald Trump. But that’s not going to happen.
Instead, Democrats here are too busy cheating.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic leadership are betting the bank on “fighting fire with fire” by copying a Trump tactic in Texas and proposing the Golden State temporarily return to congressional gerrymandering via Proposition 50.
I respect why many of my friends on the left side of the aisle will vote ‘Yes’ on Prop. 50. They are rightfully terrified that Trump is leading an egregious overreach by the executive branch of our government, while his GOP allies in Congress and the judiciary offer little to no contitutional checks and balances.
Trump is ruining our democracy ever more by the day.
But Democrats can’t cheat their way back into control of the House of Representatives. They have to say what precisely they are for, not just who they are against. Democrats show no capacity for the introspection necessary to present a true and compelling contrast to Trump (outside of their own echo chamber) to a majority of Americans.
Prop. 50 is Newsom’s thin gruel of an undemocratic California non-solution, and its rejection would serve as the kick in the pants this party so desperately needs.
If there is any state in the union that should be able to resoundingly flip some congressional seats held by Republicans, it is California. Trump has refused to provide the tens of billions of dollars of aid necessary for Los Angeles to recover from the January fires. Instead, he has dispatched ICE agents who indiscriminately target people of color and shoppers outside of Home Depots. He has frozen university funding, and he will strip health care from millions of residents when the full effects of his Big Beautiful Bill take effect.
I count at least three seats that Newsom and fellow Democrats could win without cheating. Congressman David Valadao of Fresno should face unemployment, as well as Ken Calvert and Young Kim of Southern California. The real gains for Democrats by Prop. 50 could be much smaller than advertised. And then if more Republican states react to Prop. 50’s passage by doing more gerrymandering of their own, where is the math behind Newsom’s strategy? He’s been fighting fire with a BB-gun all along.
If victory for Democrats in five gerrymandered districts is all but preordained by Prop. 50, the heat will be off Democrats to do what they really need to do, which is to get their act together and stand for something that more Americans will embrace. Setting its dubious contents aside, Newt Gingrich and his “Contract With America” platform in the 1994 elections showed how a party can pledge discrete actions that everyday Americans can understand.
Can you name the top three things Democrats most stand for today?
Democrats ignore that they are less popular than Trump
It’s simply easier for Democrats like Newsom to focus on Trump and delay their own day of reckoning. Polls consistently show that the Democratic Party, in the eyes of the American public, is even less popular than the president. This hasn’t changed over the past eight long months. That’s why cheating has emerged among leading Democrats as a palatable alternative: It’s all they got.
I also have a troubling sense that some — but not all — of those who support Prop. 50 couldn’t care less that they are disenfranchising millions of Californians from the fairest elections possible; that they know better, Republicans be damned. There is too much disrespect in our nation for dissenting views. Prop. 50 stokes at those flames that threaten the very fabric of our country.
The New York Times recently had a poll showing that a majority of Americans now feel that our political divisions have become too cavernous to overcome, that we are doomed to a future of permanent conflict. Trump, who makes no bones about hating his political adversaries, is the lead agent of this growing division.
There is little time left for Democrats to emerge as the alternative, a coherent and positive voice for a brighter and more united future, red and blue states alike. Don’t look to California to map that course. We’re going to fight over Prop. 50 instead.
This story was originally published October 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Why rejecting Prop. 50 would save California Democrats from themselves | Opinion."