'It's all at stake': As Prop. 50 fight intensifies, Newsom, partisan influencers rally their bases

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The multimillion-dollar jousting over redrawing California’s congressional districts to boost Democrats and counter President Trump was on full display in recent days, as both sides courted voters less than a month before ballots begin arriving in mailboxes.Gov.Gavin Newsom, national Democratic leaders including Sen.

Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and a slew of political influencers held an hours-long virtual rally Tuesday afternoon, urging Californians to support Proposition 50 in the Nov.4 special election.

Speakers framed the stakes of the ballot measure as nothing short of existential — not just for Democratic interests, but also for democracy.“It’s all at stake.

This is a profound and consequential moment in American history.We can lose this republic if we do not assert ourselves and stand tall at this moment and stand guard to this republic and our democracy.

I feel that in my bones,” Newsom said Tuesday afternoon.If passed, Proposition 50 would gerrymander the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats, bolstering the fates of several Democrats in vulnerable swing districts and potentially cost Republicans up to five House seats.

California’s congressional districts are drawn by a voter-approved independent commission once a decade after the U.S.census.

But Newsom and other state Democrats proposed a rare mid-decade redrawing of the districts to increase the number of Democrats in Congress in response to similar efforts in GOP-led states, notably Texas.Tuesday’s virtual rally, which was emceed by progressive influencer Brian Tyler Cohen, was a cross between an old-school money-raising telethon and new media streaming session.Popular podcasters and YouTubers such as Crooked Media’s Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor (alumni of former President Obama’s administration), Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch and David Pakman shared the screen with political leade...