Texas and California: where do we draw the line?
On Nov. 4, California voters passed Proposition 50 in a special election, attempting to combat Texas’s push to gerrymander their districts. But what is this redistricting process and why are California and Texas in conflict?
Every state in the U.S. has congressional districts that are redrawn every 10 years using U.S. Census data. There are 435 districts, one for each House representative, and each representative is elected by the population in their district. Unlike the Senate, whose senators are distributed as two for each state, the House of Representatives is based on population, meaning that states with higher population get more representatives and have to create increasingly complex maps due to the larger number of districts within the state.
On July 30, Texas, urged by the Trump administration, proposed a new map for their congressional districts which, according to the Harvard Kennedy School, could give Republicans as many as five seats in the House that are currently held by Democrats. This unusual mid-decade redistricting has drawn a lot of criticism from Democrats because of mid-decade redistricting being very frowned upon. Rather than the nationwide census-driven 10-year cycle, mid-decade redistricting has been used for the purposes of gaining power and gerrymandering because of its irregular nature. Along with the mid-decade redistricting, Texas has alleged racial motives for gerrymandering, and the new map would cause the loss of democratic seats during a republican administration.
According to the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, “Under the racially gerrymandered map, white voters in Texas have control of 70 percent of the Congressional districts despite accounting for 40 percent of the population.”
California had a problem with this. Backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Proposition 50 was put on a special election ballot and was successfully passed by California voters. But what are the impacts of this proposition?
According to the California Democratic Party, “Proposition 50 proposes new lines for many of California’s 52 congressional districts, which would negate the five Republican seats drawn by Texas.” Essentially, the bill has attempted to counteract the effects of Texas’s redistricting plan by doing the exact same thing. California’s redistricting is temporary, and a new map must still be drawn after the 2030 U.S. census.
Due to the questionable legality of the plan, California Republicans from the Dhillon Law Group filed a lawsuit against Gov. Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber. They alleged that Proposition 50 improperly used race to favor Hispanic voters “without cause or evidence to justify it.” The Law Group also stated that Proposition 50 “violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law, and the right under the 15th Amendment.” The 15th Amendment prohibits denial of voting rights based on race.
Redistricting is a very complicated matter. Youtube channel “Jay and Mark” states that districts can be “competitive,” “compact,” or “keep community.” Designing districts is truly a balancing act with no way to make everyone happy. Something that further complicates things is that districting has no legal measure to keep it fair.
Seventeenth Chief Justice of the U.S. John Roberts wrote that “The Constitution supplies no objective measure for assessing whether a districting map treats a political party fairly.”
Without an objective measure of fairness, districts will continue to struggle with gerrymandering into the future. However, while partisan gerrymandering isn’t technically illegal, racial gerrymandering is, meaning that Texas and California could be found at fault. Examples like these in California and Texas, while rare, are almost unavoidable in a polarized political climate. It’s unfortunate to see, but with these states attempting to break the 10-year cycle it sets a precedent for the future that districts can be used as political weapons rather than representations of the people.
Article by Elliott Gardner and Ty Jones