California has long positioned itself as a beacon of democratic reform. But Governor Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50—to redraw congressional maps mid-decade explicitly to flip five GOP-held seats—is a troubling departure from that legacy. It’s not just a tactical counter to Texas; it’s a strategic surrender to the very logic of winner-take-all politics.

Newsom’s plan places gerrymandered maps on the November ballot, aiming to override the state’s independent redistricting commission and tilt the playing field toward Democrats until 2030. His justification? To “counter MAGA extremists in Texas.” But in doing so, he embraces the same anti-democratic tools he claims to oppose.

This is not reform. It’s retaliation. And it exposes the fatal flaw of single-member, winner-take-all districts: our

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