Redistricting is political oppression. Why California shouldn’t do it | Opinion
The political stage currently set between the Democrats of California and the Republicans of Texas evokes a war movie directed by Christopher Nolan—fascinating but full of graphic destruction, revealing the underlying weakness of man.
Of course, the real-life drama between the Democrats of California and the Republicans of Texas stars President Donald Trump, who is more fascinating and weaker than anyone. He’s at war with Democrats and wants the Texas GOP to be his foot soldiers, protecting the GOP’s slim majorities in Congress from voters and democracy.
The weapon in this war is redistricting—the redrawing of political maps for future congressional elections—that Trump wants skewed in the Republicans’ favor in Texas. That’s called “gerrymandering,” the process by which political parties carve election districts into pieces that favor victories for themselves. Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to rouse California Democrats to strike back by gerrymandering districts to favor Democrats.
The two states are more like battleships, waiting for the other to fire the political missile first.
Redistricting promotes a partisan agenda, suppresses minority thought, and racially discriminates against Black, brown, and other politically underrepresented neighborhoods. Regardless of where you are in this country, gerrymandering tears away the power of choice bestowed to voters across America.
Newsom, via the concerns of Democrats in Texas, has alerted California to the dire consequences should the Golden State fail to fight gerrymandering in Texas with its own gerrymandering in California. But if California voters end up giving Newsom the power to redistrict the state, they’d be endorsing the oppression that gerrymandering evokes.
Gerrymandering is an act of discrimination
I am a Black American, born and raised in Tennessee. The Republican supermajority in the Volunteer State has no problem gerrymandering the state to further its radical views.
During my time, the most memorable instance was in 2022, when the state GOP introduced a new map that took away Nashville’s longtime Democratic seat. Before the change, Democrats controlled two of the nine congressional seats in the state. The NAACP filed a lawsuit claiming racial discrimination, but a federal court dismissed the case.
Then, just recently, the NAACP got a victory in a lawsuit against Fayette County, Tennessee, regarding its 2021 electoral map. The suit alleged that the political map diluted the voting power of Black residents and violated the Voting Rights Act. The county commission approved a new map with more majority-Black districts, satisfying the NAACP. They then dropped the lawsuit.
I have seen Republican-controlled states suppress the vote of Black people every chance they get by way of redistricting. It will happen in liberal blue California too. We can avoid the cycle of racial discrimination and suppression by not redistricting the political boundaries of the state.
The acceptance of Newsom‘s call to gerrymander the state goes against counting every vote fairly in the Golden State.
In a political war between California and Texas, the stakes could not be more grave.
It’s important for California, the big blue powerhouse, to be an example of leadership for Democrats, liberals, and progressives alike that says we can protect our values while also allowing conservatives the ability to vote for candidates that represent their values.
Newsom should know that the shots fired in a political war now will ring far beyond the 2026 election. Christopher Nolan could write a script for this epic battle, but the climax for such a movie would be terrible for those of us living it.
This story was originally published August 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
