As the federal government shutdown nears the end of a third full week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., took time away from Washington and from his home district in New York to visit the blue bastion of California.

In a visit to Los Angeles on Sunday, Jeffries advocated for California’s Proposition 50 ballot measure on congressional redistricting. 

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, criticized Jeffries’ past travel to his home state, telling The Daily Signal, “I mean, when you have Hakeem Jeffries show up in Austin, Texas, to try to lecture the Texas Legislature on how to draw district lines, the Democratic Party has become more radicalized. It’s become the party of Bernie Sanders and [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez].”

During his California visit, Jeffries told First African Methodist Episcopal Church congregants that “Folks in the government … would rather shut the government down than give health care to everyday Americans,” referencing the fight over the expiring COVID-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies that were meant to be a temporary measure to respond to the national pandemic. 

Senate Democrats have pushed to extend the subsidies despite the fact that the federal government has likely lost tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent spending for the benefits, according to The Wall Street Journal. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told The Daily Signal that there was likely “tens of billions of dollars flowing into insurance companies taking off commissions to unscrupulous brokers and agents who are signing up people without their knowledge because they don’t have to pay any premiums for plans that they don’t use.”

Jeffries’ visit to California came after Senate Democrats faced bipartisan criticism for planning a political conference at Hotel Yountville, a ritzy California resort that featured a wine tour even as federal workers were furloughed or are being forced to work without pay for the duration of the shutdown. 

Proposition 50, the proposed California constitutional amendment, would change how the Golden State draws its congressional districts. Currently, districts for the U.S. House of Representatives are drawn by the bipartisan California Citizens Redistricting Commission. Preempting the commission would put the power of congressional redistricting into the hands of California state lawmakers. Democrats currently hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, so Prop 50 would enable Democrat state lawmakers to further gerrymander California’s congressional districts in response to Republican measures to redistrict in red states, such as Texas. 

Republicans have defended their redistricting measures, pointing out President Donald Trump’s increasing support among groups that are not traditionally supporters of the GOP.

“President Trump has done very well among minority groups like Hispanics and places like Texas, which is a large part of our population, and so it’s only fair that their voting strength and their Republican strength and across the state can be reflected in these lines,” Cornyn told The Daily Signal.

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