00:00Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to present Senate Bill 280 today,
00:09which calls for a statewide special election on November 4th of this year.
00:16The special election would allow California voters to consider an Assembly Constitutional Amendment, ACA 8,
00:24which would allow this legislature to engage in a one-time, mid-decade redistricting of our state's districts in the U.S. House of Representatives.
00:34The Citizens' Redistricting Commission would then be able to engage in its regularly scheduled program,
00:41independent redistricting process after the 2030 Census.
00:45SB 280 also appropriates the funding necessary for the Secretary of State and for our county registrars to administer this special election.
00:57The bill also makes the necessary statutory changes to allow the June 2026 statewide primary election to be held on time.
01:08California did not start this fight.
01:11This fight came to us.
01:13We are here because President Trump and Republicans in Congress know that their agenda is deeply unpopular,
01:24and they see the writing on the wall.
01:27They know that the mass deportation regime that uses secret police to kidnap police people off our streets and into unmarked vans
01:37goes against our American values.
01:40They know that voters will hold them accountable for the spending cuts they jammed through Congress that strip health care away from millions of Americans.
01:51And they know that giving tax cuts to billionaires while Trump imposes tariff taxes on essential goods such as coffee and bananas will continue to raise the cost of living for everyday working families.
02:08What Trump knows is that the only path for Republicans to hold on to the House in the midterms is to change the rules in the middle of the game.
02:20That is why in Texas and in other states, Republican legislators are preparing to redraw their congressional maps so that Republican politicians get to choose their voters.
02:32Again, Republican politicians get to choose their voters instead of letting voters choose their representative.
02:40They want to silence the voices of Latino voters, Black voters, API voters, and LGBTQ voters.
02:51Trump wants to change the rules of the game in the fifth inning so that Republicans get four strikes while Democrats get three.
03:01Their goal is simple, to rig congressional maps in Republican states across our country to make it impossible for Democrats to retake control of the House of Representatives in 2026.
03:14California cannot stand by while Donald Trump dismantles our democracy piece by piece by piece.
03:24We will not let him determine the outcome of future elections years in advance before any vote is cast to prop up his authoritarian presidency.
03:36And if you doubt that Trump is trying to become a dictator, remember that he sent armed federal agents to harass the peace
03:44and a peaceful press conference that took place last week in L.A. with Governor Newsom.
03:51The truth of the matter is, if we let Donald Trump get away with this rigging of elections through gerrymandering, partisan gerrymandering,
04:00we may not have free or fair elections in the United States in the future.
04:07If Donald Trump pursues this partisan power grab, then California is ready to respond.
04:15Our plan will only go into effect if Texas and other states move to redraw their lines.
04:28Trump can do the right thing today and stand down and not move forward in redrawing congressional maps in Republican states.
04:48And California's current districts will remain in place.
04:53Ultimately, this is our preferred outcome because we do value the California's Independent Redistricting Commission, which is the gold standard of our country.
05:04And this crisis shows that we need to enact a nationwide citizens nonpartisan commission.
05:15If every state followed California's lead and adopted these independent redistricting commissions,
05:22or if Congress required this, we wouldn't be in this crisis to begin with.
05:30Gerrymandering would be a thing of the past.
05:33Finally, I want to address Republican members of Congress from California.
05:39You have the power to stop this from happening.
05:43The power is in your hands.
05:46I appeal to your better angles, but if you refuse to listen to those angles,
05:51I will rely on your ambition, your self-interest, and your desire to keep your House seats and your paycheck.
05:58You can ask President Trump to end this now.
06:02You can tell him to call off these partisan gerrymandering in Texas and other states.
06:08But if Trump decides to move forward with his plan to steal Democratic seats, then California will be the firewall.
06:15We have defeated authoritarianism before, and we will defeat it again, but at the ballot box,
06:25with the voters in the state of California making the ultimate decision on November 4th, 2025.
06:36Today we have two witnesses testifying in support.
06:41I will allow them to self-identify.
06:44And you each have three.
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