Opinion: With checks fading, Prop. 50 lets Californians hold the line

As a former California redistricting commissioner, I have witnessed firsthand the careful, deliberate and transparent process that drew our congressional lines to reflect the real people of our state. The work was not easy, but it was honorable — and it safeguarded the principle that every community deserves fair representation.

Which is why I am both alarmed and deeply disappointed at the way conversations around Proposition 50, California’s mid-cycle redistricting measure, have often been reduced to a single, shallow question: “What will it cost?”

Yes, this special election carries a financial cost. But if we view it only through dollars and cents, we ignore the greater risks. An estimated 3.4 million Californians stand to lose health care coverage due to Medicaid cuts, and another 3.1 million people — children, veterans and families — face the loss of vital nutrition assistance through SNAP.

There are measurable consequences of this moment that will reshape the health and stability of our state, while steadily eroding the foundations of our democracy.

We cannot ignore the reality that this year’s map redrawing in Texas and other states, at President Trump’s urging, has been widely challenged as racial gerrymandering. This continues a generational pattern in many states where lines are drawn to weaken Black, brown, immigrant and working-class voices so politicians can pick their voters.

The Constitution is clear: The role of Congress is to make laws and act as a check and balance to the executive branch. But the Republican-led Congress has failed to fulfill that role. Instead of standing as a safeguard, Congress has abdicated its responsibility and has been a rubber stamp for the president’s unconstitutional whims.

The burden for checking this abuse of power has now shifted to the states and to the people themselves. That is why California must do everything within its power to counter this. Midterm redistricting is a moral necessity. We need to pass Proposition 50 and do what we can to hold the line.

The real cost of inaction shows up when children go hungry because their communities are drawn out of political power and their needs are ignored.

The real cost shows up when working families are silenced, while wealthy donors and entrenched politicians redraw maps to protect themselves.

The real cost shows up when generations of struggle for fair representation are erased by a pen stroke that divides neighborhoods and dissolves communities of interest.

And ultimately, the greatest cost is borne by our democracy itself. If we refuse to act because we are afraid of the dollar amount for a special election, then we are complicit in paying a far higher price in human dignity and democratic erosion.

Serving as a redistricting commissioner meant listening to thousands of Californians: parents, farmworkers, business owners, pastors, students, seniors and more. They shared stories of who they are and how their communities function, from the Central Valley to the coast, from urban cities to rural towns.

We honored the state Voting Rights Act, respected communities of interest and built maps in the open for everyone to see. It was democracy in action. It was Californians proving that independent, transparent redistricting is not only possible but necessary.

Now, faced with deliberate racial gerrymandering in other states and unchecked executive overreach at home, California must respond with equal determination.

Democracy is never free. Every generation is asked to invest something in its survival. But the question before us is not whether midterm redistricting is expensive. The question is whether we will further enable the unchecked cost of inhumane laws, unconstitutional abuses and far-reaching executive orders affecting ordinary Californians.

We’ve watched this presidential administration dismantle DEI programs and send the National Guard into our cities under false claims of “rampant crime” — all while cutting the very programs that reduced it. He has targeted and criminalized vulnerable people under the guise of “public safety.”

It is shortsighted for Californians to think only about California at this moment. To stand by and allow more of the same is to surrender to authoritarianism in slow motion. The safeguards we once believed would protect us simply aren’t holding.

Now is not the time for neutrality. If reversing course is what it takes to protect representation, equity and democracy itself, then we must act.

The price of justice will always be less than the price of injustice. That is the truth we must remember before we decide what “cost” really means. It is why I urge every voting-age Californian to back Proposition 50, so we can temporarily set aside the 2020 congressional maps and do our part to stand against authoritarian overreach.

Turner served on the California Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2020. She is an ordained minister and the executive pastor of Victory In Praise Church in Stockton. This commentary was originally published by CalMatters.