Rural California Republicans say Prop. 50 map leaves them voiceless

Jared Huffman plans 950-mile trip to hear voters he hopes to represent

California’s far northeastern corner has been one of the state’s most reliably Republican congressional territories, and it voted solidly for Donald Trump in each of the last three presidential elections. But Proposition 50 carved it up. NPR reported that Californians voted overwhelmingly for the measure to redraw the state’s congressional map and gain five more Democratic seats, and that many voters in the region may soon have a Democrat representing them in Washington.

In Modoc County, where only about two people live per square mile and the cows vastly outnumber the humans, Ned Coe has been ranching for decades, still using the same cattle call his father used. NPR reported that after 13 years of being represented by a Republican farmer, Ned and his wife, Valerie, will probably be calling Jared Huffman — a Democrat from the San Francisco Bay Area — their new congressman.

Valerie Coe said the district’s urban majority will shape representation. “He is going to make decisions that benefit them, and no consideration will be given to us because it can’t be. He needs their votes,” she said. Marin County, where Huffman is based, makes up 30% of the vote in the district, according to NPR, while Modoc County makes up just 1%.

NPR reported that gray wolves, protected by law, keep attacking cattle and other livestock in the area. “A wolf is not in the least bit afraid of a human being. The only thing that protects us is a firearm, and you’re not allowed to use a firearm against them,” Valerie Coe said. Asked whether legal protections for gray wolves reflect a bias against her way of life, she said: “Absolutely. This is our business. This is our way of life, and we’re not allowed to protect ourselves.” She called the situation cruel. “We care very deeply about these animals,” she said. “We pride ourselves on being good stewards of the land and being good stewards of our animals.”

The Coes are Republicans, but they said their own party bore responsibility for the national redistricting wars. “What was done in Texas was wrong. Two wrongs do not make a right,” Valerie Coe said. “It’s still not right. And in California’s case, the advantage goes to the Democrats. Again, it’s still not right.” Ned Coe, a county supervisor, said the fight has made his job harder and that he now tries to bypass his own congressional representative. “My approach has been to work with congressional members, whether they’re from other parts of California or other states, that will help carry issues forward,” he said.

The new district’s geography is extreme. A vast swath runs along the entire Oregon border, then a narrow tendril shoots down the California coast to the San Francisco Bay; NPR reported it would take about 12 hours of nonstop driving to travel across it. Three hours west of the Coes’ ranch, in Siskiyou County timber country, logger Tristan Allen said the new lines deepened a long-standing feeling of being forgotten by California.

Allen’s family has logged in Siskiyou County for five generations. NPR reported that his machines allow a single worker to pull down 2,000 trees every day, from stands where the trees reach about 150 feet, and that his operation burns roughly 4,000 gallons of diesel per day. NPR reported the war in Iran has pushed up diesel prices so much that Allen is in the red this year. “I like to refer to Siskiyou County as Baja, Oregon,” Allen said. “No one in Oregon wants us and no one in California cares about us. So we have to figure out how to be heard and make sure that they pay attention.”

Allen said he identifies as a Californian “a hundred percent” and noted he lives 22 miles from Oregon. Along Bogus Creek, roughly 7 miles from the state line, rancher Ryan Walker — a registered independent whose family has ranched in the area for 50 years, first sheep and then cattle — said the district pairs communities with little in common. “Of all the redistricting wars that have gone on, you’re standing in what is clearly the most ridiculous district to be drawn,” Walker said. “We’re not a real district. This district was drawn with the purpose of making my voice less powerful. That’s what gerrymandering is.”

Walker said a resident of Cedarville and someone living on a houseboat in Sausalito approach politics from entirely different perspectives, and he questioned how the district’s communities could hold a meaningful town hall across such distances. He also conceded that rural voters should not necessarily have an outsized voice in a state he described as “larger than a country,” with big urban centers driving policy. “I don’t know that I think my voice should be outsized because I’m rural and sparse,” he said, “but at the same time, there does have to be a voice.”

Walker described two possible advantages to the map. The wolf area, he said, is now split among four, possibly light-blue, districts, which could produce a greater desire to find a comprehensive solution; and the entire California portion of the Klamath River now sits in one district, which he said could push coastal and upland tributary communities toward compromise. On his own vote, Walker said the outcome feels decided. “The whole point of Prop 50 was make my vote not count,” he said. NPR reported that Walker called the race “such a foregone conclusion” and struggled even to recall the last name of the Republican candidate, who trails far behind Huffman.

Huffman told NPR he plans to “work hard to show up and listen to people in Modoc and Siskiyou counties” and in the other places he hopes to represent. NPR reported that he is taking a 950-mile road trip up to the region this week.