WHAT IF EVERY STATE PASSED ITS OWN PROP 50?
California voters approved Proposition 50 by 63.9% to 36.1% on November 4th. A 27-point margin isn’t reluctant tolerance. It’s a mandate. Californians didn’t just permit redistricting. They endorsed it by margins larger than they gave Biden.
Governor Pritzker said “everything on the table” for Illinois redistricting. The opportunity facing Illinois and other Democratic governors is straightforward. Illinois has Democratic supermajorities, no independent redistricting commission, and courts that already permit partisan gerrymandering. Illinois can act in January 2026 and secure one to two House seats for three election cycles. Every seat matters when control is decided by three to five seats.
California proved voters will show up enthusiastically for leaders who fight for power. Not leaders who wait for permission. Not leaders who write strongly worded letters. Leaders who seize every available advantage and make opponents react to them. The legislative session starts January 2026. California just validated the strategy. Now comes execution.
Proposition 50 suspended California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission for three election cycles. The new maps target five Republican-held seats while securing vulnerable Democratic incumbents. Voters approved this by 63.9%. That margin is higher than Biden’s 2020 California performance of 63.5%. Voters didn’t just tolerate aggressive redistricting. They turned out specifically to approve it with overwhelming enthusiasm.
This destroys decades of Democratic conventional wisdom. Political consultants claimed voters punish “playing politics.” They don’t. Voters punish losing. They punish hesitation. They punish leaders who let opponents run the table while debating whether fighting violates norms. The 27-point margin creates permission structure for every Democratic governor. You’re not breaking rules voters care about. You’re doing exactly what voters are demanding: compete hard for power, use every legal tool available, make opponents defend their positions instead of Democrats constantly defending theirs.
California grabbed five House seats with overwhelming voter approval. Texas had already signed its redistricting in August. Missouri followed in September. North Carolina and Ohio completed theirs in October. California responded in November. Voters approved the response by 27 points. This wasn’t reluctant tolerance of a necessary evil. This was enthusiastic endorsement of fighting back. California proved that responding aggressively to Republican redistricting wins overwhelming public support, and now California has five additional seats while other Democratic states are still debating whether responding violates norms worth preserving.
The public rewards convictions over concessions.
Winners seize opportunities. Losers wait for arbitrary lines in the sand. California voters just told every Democratic governor which approach they’ll reward.
Illinois represents the clearest opportunity for Democrats to replicate California’s success. Governor Pritzker controls Democratic supermajorities in both chambers: 78-40 House, 40-19 Senate. Illinois has no independent redistricting commission. Illinois courts explicitly permitted partisan gerrymandering in 2021. The Illinois General Assembly can pass new maps in January 2026 for implementation across three election cycles.
Illinois currently holds 14 of 17 congressional seats. Illinois could hold 15 or 16 of 17. That’s one to two additional seats for Democratic House control. Zero legal barriers. Zero constitutional constraints. A legislature ready to act. A political environment where California just proved voters enthusiastically support exactly this kind of aggressive action.
The 2026 House of Representatives timeline presents complications. Candidate filing deadlines already passed November 3rd. The March 17th primary creates tight constraints. Acting in January might require pushing back the primary and having candidates refile under new districts. But California’s Proposition 50 runs through 2030. Three election cycles. The relevant question isn’t whether January 2026 makes the immediate election logistically complex. Democrats cannot surrender one to two Illinois seats for the next three election cycles because one filing deadline makes one cycle complicated. That would be strategic malpractice. Even if 2026 implementation faces obstacles, passing maps in January 2026 locks them in for 2028 and 2030. Those elections determine House control when the political stakes remain just as high. Republicans aren’t building one-cycle advantages. They’re building structural power that compounds across multiple elections. Democrats either match that time horizon or keep losing.
Illinois stands alone among major blue states in having immediate ability to act. New York cannot act until 2028 and state constitution can require a multi-year amendment process with two consecutive legislative passages plus voter approval. Virginia requires constitutional amendment passage in January 2026 plus voter approval.
The timeline is tight and the outcome uncertain.
Maryland faces political resistance despite technical ability to act. Colorado and Michigan are permanently bound by voter-created independent commissions that cannot be overridden without intense state constitutional amendment processes.
Only Illinois can act freely right now for multiple election cycles. When House control comes down to three to five seats, Illinois’s one to two seats the difference between Speaker Hakeem Jeffries or Speaker Mike Johnson. Between Democrats having any power to check overreach or Republicans having free reign.
California grabbed five seats. Illinois can grab one to two. Together that’s six to seven seats in a House decided by single digits. That’s building power when it matters most. The legislative session begins January 2026. California voters just provided the political validation with a 27-point mandate. Illinois can follow the same path or keep waiting to be reactive.
Every seat matters in close House margins. Republicans understand this. They’re pursuing every available seat in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, and Indiana because they know three-seat margins determine everything. They’re not waiting to see what Democrats do first. They’re not debating whether aggressive redistricting violates norms. They’re fighting for every seat using every legal mechanism available because that’s how you build and maintain power.
California has demonstrated that voters want their governors to bring the same intensity. The 27-point landslide wasn’t voters saying “reluctantly we’ll tolerate this.” It was voters saying “finally, someone’s fighting.” Every priority depends on House composition. Protecting voting rights, defending human rights, checking executive overreach, maintaining any leverage in a Republican trifecta, all of this requires seats. A three-seat margin means everything or nothing.
Illinois has one to two seats available. Virginia has two to three. Maryland has one. California already grabbed five. These marginal seats determine whether Democrats have power or whether they’re writing strongly worded letters from the minority for the next four years. The choice is between competing for these seats or explaining from the minority why you didn’t.
Courts treat Democratic and Republican gerrymanders differently. Democratic maps get struck down in months. Republican maps survive despite multiple court rejections. California voters just told Democratic governors they don’t care. The 63.9% approval says: fight anyway, we’ll reward you for fighting even if courts strike it down, and we’re tired of watching you hesitate while opponents act. Illinois courts already permit partisan gerrymandering. But even if they didn’t, California just validated that voters want the fight regardless of outcome. Stop letting court capture dictate whether you compete. Compete first. Let the political victory matter more than the legal uncertainty. More importantly, why listen to openly corrupt courts?
Illinois faces the clearest path. The legislative session begins January 2026. California held a vote on November 4th. Voters approved aggressive redistricting by 63.9% to 36.1%. A 27-point mandate for competing hard. Illinois can act in January. Virginia needs one more constitutional vote. Maryland has technical capability despite political resistance. New York faces the longest timeline but should start now.
Together these marginal seats determine House control. Together they determine whether Democrats have any power to check overreach or spend the next four years writing minority reports no one reads. Voters showed what they’ll reward. Stop hesitating. Fight for power. Win.
Governor JB Pritzker: Contact through the official state website at https://gov.illinois.gov/contact-us/contact-the-governor.html Tell him California voters approved redistricting by 27 points. Illinois can secure one to two seats for three election cycles starting January 2026.
If you’re in Virginia, Maryland, New York, or any state with a Democratic governor and legislature: send them this article. Contact your governor’s office. Tell them voters just validated aggressive redistricting with overwhelming support. Ask them what they’re waiting for.”
What’s the next step? The Intro to Soft Secession Booklet breaks down the constitutional authorities states already possess, the legal frameworks that protect aggressive state action, and the organizing strategies that turn policy proposals into actual institutions. Stop asking federal permission. Start building state power. Get it by clicking on any of this text that you are reading right here and now but not the text after this sentence because that text won’t take you anywhere like this text will.
APA Reference List
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CalMatters. (2025, November 4; updated November 7). Proposition 50 live results map. https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2025/11/proposition-50-live-results-map/
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Structural reform is the only thing that can save our zombie nation, a dead thing that persists in name only. The Establishment Clause and the treason clause, bedrock principles of democracy, have been overturned and crushed by John Roberts. We put a murderous traitor back in the West Wing, and the corporate AMT is now being repealed (again). I work with college grads all the time. The overall level of despair is growing faster than the $40T debt and ginormous student loans they are being asked to pay off. The USA is Butch Cassidy in a black robe. Don't like Rucho's and Shelby's and BvG's John Roberts? Who cares what you think. He is your king. ...... Structural reform, on a grand scale. Why does WY have the same # of Senators as TX and NY? Why two Dakotas or Carolinas instead of one? Why is the House permanently capped at 435 members? Why do we still need the slaveholder's Electoral Clg? Why do we even pretend this shithole nation can be rescued from minority tyranny? The Framers fucked us. There were only thirteen colonies in the beginning. Rules regarding the formation of new states were never even discussed in 1787. A sliver of empty states now run the country, deeper than ever into the ground.
Happily and enthusiastically voted YES on prop 50. Sent Newsom money as soon as he announced the effort. We saw the shenanigans Republicans like to try here in CA when they tried to “Gray Davis” Newsom. Newsom hit back and hit back hard. He’s perhaps not the most popular in CA, but he’s in the fight.
Let’s see if Pritzger stands up. Wes Moore as well. They are reported to have higher ambitions. Now they have to prove they are willing to fight.
Virginians sent a strong message last Tuesday, going blue across the board. This is after the Democratic legislature found and acted on the loophole — Republicans left open! — voting to begin the process to redistrict. The voters rewarded them with substantial majorities that will enable them to go forward.
These efforts point to the need to show up NOT just on Election Day but every day to lay the foundations in restoring our democracy. Republicans have spent decades, capturing local offices and party apparatus, grooming ultra conservative lawyers to step into federal judgeships, amassing war chests to challenge any without or within the party, rigging elections through gerrymandering. Their vision of America isn’t one or two degrees off normal or center, it’s radical, it’s regressive and it is destroying the longest running democracy in history at a speed surprising even to them. We must do all we can to stop the authoritarian juggernaut. How about it, Pritzker?