Proposition 50, also known as the Election Rigging Response Act, was proposed by the state legislators of California and Governor Gavin Newsom and appeared on the special election ballot on November 4. The proposition passed in California on Election Day, November 4, with 63.8% of voters electing “Yes.” Newsom has said that Prop 50 was initiated in response to Texas redistricting and comments made by President Donald Trump calling for five new congressional seats, citing that Republicans are “entitled to five more seats.”

Ceiveon Watkins, a senior Theology major, sees how Prop 50 can help California in responding to Texas, but, “I don’t believe that the way [California] is doing it is going about it right and that the redistricting will be done unfairly against the smaller voters,” said Watkins.

Watkins called out a trend shared between both Texas and California involving how redistricting for political benefit may misrepresent some of their voters from minority groups in their states, such as small-town Republican farmers in California or left-leaning Democratic voters in Texas. 

Watkins said he “grew up in California around a lot of the earlier primaries of 2004, 2008… I saw a lot of what those districts looked like growing up from my family and the people around me. And I already knew that gerrymandering was rough; I don’t think that trying to redistrict now is going to do any good for the midterms.” 

Dr. Clinton J. Armstrong, Professor of History and Theology and chair of the History and Political Thought Department sees the adverse effects of gerrymandering in states saying “I am against gerrymandering on principle, this is really a fight of fighting fire with fire, and predominantly blue states looking at Texas and other states and saying ‘Well if they’re going to do it, we can too.’ Does that truly give power back to the people? Or is it making them pawns for a larger redistricting fight?” 

Given how California and Texas have responded to each other, a trend of reactionary politics could be one of the major factors leading up to the midterms in 2026. Armstrong noted that instead of voting on a value system [conservative or liberal], voters typically focus on the “really material” concerns like medical care, education and jobs. “This is human stuff. It's quite material,” Armstrong emphasized. 

Whether it’s a special election, midterms or the general election, Armstrong reminds those vested in the political process that voting “exercises that essential bit of what the Democratic process is, and that's one person, one vote… It gives power to the people to voice their opinion.”

 

Tags: Politics

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