I’ve seen the harm of gerrymandering. Despite that, I support Prop. 50 | Opinion

Personally, I like the idea of voting for gerrymandering about as much as I like driving through Highway 50 construction. As a staff member on Congressman Ami Bera’s first race in 2010, I experienced firsthand the anti-democratic downsides of a district drawn to benefit the other party.

California congressional districts in 2010 were gerrymandered to protect incumbents. Bera’s district race was gerrymandered to help Republican incumbent Dan Lungren by vacuuming up Republican voters from Solano County all the way to Alpine County at the Nevada border, which disenfranchised Democratic voters in Elk Grove and Carmichael. Endless nights and long weekends campaigning for Bera were no match for the registration disadvantage. We lost by nearly 7%.

The Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) then fixed California gerrymandering. Enacted by voters, the CRC is a bipartisan group of citizens who have the sole responsibility to draw legislative districts based on “communities of interest” — not political affiliation. The CRC’s first nonpartisan maps in 2012 drew Bera’s district fully contained in Sacramento County, resulting in near equal voter registration between Democrats and Republicans. All voters’ voices were heard in the very close contest that Bera eked out, winning by 2% and becoming a congressmember.

Many factors play into any election victory, but partisan registration splits are one. And the CRC removing the burden of gerrymandering certainly helped Bera’s victory in 2012. I was so impressed by the CRC that, while in law school, I spent most of a year researching and writing a published law review article arguing against the evils of gerrymandering and in support of stronger voting rights.

I truly despise gerrymandering and adore the CRC. But even I must now concede that it is time California to put the CRC in a voter-induced coma for congressional redistricting until 2030 with Proposition 50.

Let’s call Prop. 50 what it is: gerrymandering. The proposition will redraw California congressional maps to unnaturally make more districts competitive for California Democratic congressional candidates because Republicans are gerrymandering other states. This is anti-democratic and antithetical to my values, especially having been on the other side.

We are living in unprecedented times. I’ve always tried to ascribe to what then-First Lady Michelle Obama said in her address to the 2016 Democratic Convention: “when they go low, we go high.” But that was until we all got dragged into the mud.

Without any federal power, Democrats and other democracy supporters are now watching their moral high ground crumble into the encroaching waves of authoritarianism as Trump weaponizes troops and the justice department against his perceived enemies; pardons convicted insurrectionists and campaign donors; orders masked agents to rip apart families with little concern for due process; rewrites history faster than Big Brother ever could; and pushes Republican state legislators to perform unprecedented mid-census gerrymandering. And that’s just a small sample of his anti-democratic acts in only nine months.

This is what arguments against Proposition 50 miss: The major opponents are Republicans hiding behind an insincere mask of supporting democracy when, in reality, they simply don’t want their own tool used against them. But genuine democracy supporters who have concerns voting for gerrymandering are only looking at part of the picture. Prop. 50’s impacts to federal representation at the state level are necessary to protect democracy at the national level.

California does not operate in a vacuum — we are part of a federal system, and that system is buckling under the weight of an authoritarian onslaught.

Prop. 50 will counterbalance Texas and other Republican states’ recent gerrymandering and help give Democrats a more fair chance to take back the House. Democrats controlling the House will be a much-needed check on the president (a president who so far has enjoyed wielding unchecked power). Sometimes the ends can justify the means and sometimes a very short low road must be taken to get back to higher ground.

Prop. 50 is also just a start. This will not guarantee more democratic seats. The real, hard work happens next year, when democracy supporters need to get off the couch to support pro-democracy congressional candidates throughout the state. But Prop. 50 will make next year’s hard work easier, and that could make the difference in congress and for democracy.

I implore Californians to abandon ideological purity and support Prop. 50. We must be willing to use Trump’s own tactics — within democratic bounds — to stop him. If Prop. 50 doesn’t pass, we will have a great view of democracy’s end from our moral high ground.

Conner Johnston is co-founder of political software mywarchest.com and a member of Sacramento’s Measure U committee.

This story was originally published October 27, 2025 at 11:06 AM with the headline "I’ve seen the harm of gerrymandering. Despite that, I support Prop. 50 | Opinion."