Desperate times call for desperate measures, like Proposition 50.

Your Democratic representatives in Congress have heard you: They’re not doing enough to fight back against President Donald Trump’s anti-democratic agenda. And they don’t disagree. “Since we don’t have the vote, it’s not very much [we can do],” concedes U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose.

This is simple math. Outnumbered in the House and the Senate, the Democrats are watching the end of bipartisan negotiations as their Republican colleagues follow Trump’s lead. As soon as Trump called for redistricting in Texas – midway between decadal census years, in a blatant gerrymandering effort to solidify the Republican House majority in the 2026 election – Lofgren and other California Democrats got to work.

She became one the architects of a map in California designed to neutralize the Texas plan. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, championed the plan, and the Election Rigging Response Act was passed by the State Legislature. It created Proposition 50, which is on the ballot this November. (Registered voters in Monterey County should have already received vote-by-mail ballots. You can still vote in-person on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4.)

If Prop. 50 is approved by voters, the new maps would take effect until the next census in 2030, when the normal procedure would kick back in – a nonpartisan commission of regular people would be tasked with drawing non-gerrymandered districts.

It’s a politically motivated plan crafted by politicians, but it is a necessary plan. As Newsom has said and others have echoed, it’s a way to fight fire with fire. It is openly antithetical to California’s fairer, better system – but it’s chance for a muted party in Washington, D.C. to hold onto a sliver of influence. If granted, they better use it to stand up to Trump and stop him from running roughshod over democracy.

“People say, why is the president allowed to do that in a country that has a system of checks and balances?” says Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley. “Because we have a weak Republican majority in the House and Senate who are not living up to their responsibilities. That’s why [Trump] is afraid of 2026, because he knows his policies are not popular – he’s doing everything he can to rig the 2026 election and keep that majority. We need to do everything we can to neutralize Texas.”

“People say, ‘What can we do to fight?’”

The plan would adjust the lines of some of California’s 52 congressional districts. Panetta’s District 19 would not change. The lines of Lofgren’s District 18 would move slightly, giving up some constituents on the north end in San Jose to Ro Khanna’s District 17, and expand to the southeast, adding redder Coalinga in Fresno County. That would enable the Central Valley District 22, currently occupied by Republican David Valadao, to turn bluer, one of the districts Democrats hope to flip.

Most California voters, over 80 percent, would experience no change in their district if Prop. 50 passes. Democratic lawmakers are relying on those blue-leaning voters to turn out anyway in order to pass the proposition. And I’m here to join the chorus to say: They must.

I don’t like gerrymandering either, but there are a few redeeming virtues to California’s plan. First, the maps expire in 2030. Second, the voters have a chance to weigh in at all; in Texas, Republican lawmakers just pushed it through.

“People say, ‘What can we do to fight?’” Panetta says. His answer: “We drew these maps for you to vote on.”

Locally, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors and Soledad City Council have voted to support Prop. 50.

In Soledad, Councilmember Fernando Ansaldo-Sánchez asked to bring the endorsement forward primarily in light of federal impacts to constituents’ health care. “It’s important for us as a city to stick behind our residents,” he says. “And to support and preserve our democracy and our Constitution – many people fought for our rights and we need to remember that.”

Council discussed whether voting to support Prop. 50 might draw repercussions from Trump, but they unanimously decided to stand up to tyranny. That kind of fear of potential repercussions is exactly why we need to fight back and approve Prop. 50.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com