President Obama Endorses California’s Proposition 50

Democracy is on the ballot this November — don't miss your opportunity to level the playing field and stop Republicans in their tracks

Photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr (modified)

As voting begins on California’s counter to Donald Trump’s authoritarian power grab, former President Barack Obama appeared in a 30-second advertisement, urging voters to protect American democracy.

“California, the whole nation is counting on you,” the former president reminded voters on social media. “Democracy is on the ballot November 4th.”

With several Republican-led states, namely Texas, pursuing aggressive redistricting to disenfranchise voters and deliver Donald Trump a rigged majority in Congress, the former president’s plea to voters is no exaggeration; Proposition 50 is truly the last line of defense against single-party rule in America.

Republicans’ anti-American policies — gutting healthcare, suppressing free speech, killing jobs, and enabling mass kidnappings — have become vastly unpopular. Nevertheless, Trump and his sycophants might never lose another election if they succeed in rigging down-ballot races in their favor.

Thankfully, Proposition 50 would allow California to redraw its own congressional maps to advantage Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections — picking up at least 5 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to negate Texas’s stolen elections.

“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Former President Obama added. “With Prop 50, you can stop Republicans in their tracks.”

Meanwhile, Proposition 50’s critics, including former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, are skeptical that such an approach might further erode democracy.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me that because we have to fight Trump, to become Trump,” Schwarzenegger said of the ballot initiative. “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Admittedly, redrawing congressional maps to promote a distinct partisan advantage is an unintuitive approach to protecting democracy, but Republicans have left Democrats with no other choice.

Gerrymandering is distinctly anti-democratic, but context matters.

Schwarzenegger’s argument, however principled, is fundamentally flawed in the sense that no tyrant — Trump included — has ever been stopped through apathy or appeasement.

The past eight years are proof that MAGA Republicans have no intention of playing by the rules or obeying long-standing democratic norms, so freedom-loving Americans must be willing to fight fire with fire to even the playing field.

Moreover, Proposition 50 is designed as a temporary and proportional response to Republican-led gerrymandering. In other words, once Republicans abandon their siege on democracy, California will automatically re-implement its non-partisan redistricting commission by 2030, making the long-term risks to democracy negligible.

Proposition 50 is an emergency reaction — not a long-term agenda.

And unlike Texas’s anti-democratic redistricting crusade, California’s Proposition 50 puts this emergency redistricting power directly in the hands of voters — not backroom politicians taking orders from the president.

“Prop 50 puts our elections back on a level playing field, preserves independent redistricting over the long term, and lets the people decide,” Obama highlighted in his support of the measure. “Return your ballot today.”

At present, Proposition 50 is the last line of defense against Donald Trump’s dictatorial fantasies, and voters must act accordingly.

There is truly no time to waste — the result of the November 4 election in California will likely decide the fate of the 2026 midterms, and by extension, the survival of America’s 250-year-old democratic experiment.

Vote-by-mail ballots in California must be postmarked on or by election day to be counted, and received by no later than November 11, 2025.

Online registration closes on October 25, but voters still have the option to register in person on or before election day, although their votes will not be counted until their registration is validated.

Do not let Trump lock in on power. Vote yes on 50 — vote yes on democracy.

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