AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In the far northeastern corner of California...
(SOUNDBITE OF COW MOOING)
CHANG: ...Where about four dozen cows are gathered around me, staring at me dead in the eye.
(Laughter) I feel like I'm teaching a class of cow students or something.
We're in Modoc county, where the cows vastly outnumber the humans. I mean, there are only two people per square mile around here.
NED COE: Come boss. Come boss.
CHANG: That's Ned Coe. He's been ranching up here for decades. He still uses the same cattle call that his dad used to use back in the day. What are you actually saying? Come, comma, boys?
N COE: Come boss.
CHANG: Oh, boss.
N COE: Bossy. Bossy.
CHANG: Oh, right.
N COE: Come boss.
CHANG: Come boss.
We're in Modoc County because Californians voted overwhelmingly for Prop 50 to redistrict the state and gain five more Democratic seats. And so, after 13 years of being represented by a Republican farmer, Ned and his wife, Valerie, are probably going to be calling a Democrat from the San Francisco Bay Area their new congressman, Jared Huffman.
VALERIE COE: When a politician, his base of voters live in the city and they don't identify with our way of life, they don't understand our way of life, 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.
CHANG: And voters in Marin County, where Huffman is based, make up 30% of the vote in this district, whereas Modoc County makes up just 1%.
V COE: And they know that we're a very small minority up here, and we're largely Republican. So pragmatically speaking, he's not going to spend time on the issues that are devastating our local economies, our small...
CHANG: Issues, Valerie says, like all the laws protecting gray wolves, which keep attacking the cattle and other livestock up here.
V COE: 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.
CHANG: Do you think that the legal protection that lawmakers give to gray wolves reflects a bias against your way of life?
V COE: Absolutely. This is our business. This is our way of life, and we're not allowed to protect ourselves. I mean, to know that your horse is out in the backyard being eaten by a wolf and you can't even run that pack of wolves off, and you have other horses out there.
CHANG: It seems unfair to you.
V COE: It's cruel. We care very deeply about these animals. We pride ourselves on being good stewards of the land and being good stewards of our animals.
CHANG: And that love of animals is evident right back at the Coes' ranch house, where Valerie's paintings of horses and farm life decorate the walls.
V COE: Would you like any sugar or...
CHANG: Oh, no, thank you.
This cattle country went solidly for President Trump in the last three presidential elections. And even though Ned and Valerie Coe are Republicans themselves, they don't like their party's role in the redistricting fight.
V COE: What was done in Texas was wrong. Two wrongs do not make a right. It was done, and the advantage went to the Republicans. It's still not right. And in California's case, the advantage goes to the Democrats. Again, it's still not right.
CHANG: And Ned says this redistricting battle has only made his job as a county supervisor here harder. He now thinks the only way he can deliver for his community is to bypass his own congressional representative.
N COE: 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.
CHANG: You feel that you should go work with representatives of other districts in order to make sure that your interests are taken into account?
N COE: Yes.
CHANG: Yes. To people like the Coes, this new congressional map does count their votes - yeah - but only enough to ensure that they are politically discounted. To guarantee that this new district goes blue, a vast swath of it stretches along the entire Oregon border. Then a skinny tendril shoots down the California coast to land at the San Francisco Bay. It would take you something like 12 hours of nonstop driving to travel all that. And we do feel a bit of that trek as we make our way three hours west of the Coes' ranch, deep into timber country to meet Tristan Allen, who's a logger.
TRISTAN ALLEN: This is the Christmas tree heaven right here.
CHANG: Is that a noble fir?
ALLEN: We call him Shasta fir, but that's a noble fir.
CHANG: Because...
ALLEN: You paid top dollar for that Christmas tree.
CHANG: I did (laughter). That's my...
ALLEN: My...
CHANG: ...Favorite kind of Christmas tree...
ALLEN: And my wife...
CHANG: ...Is the noble fir.
ALLEN: My wife calls them Charlie Brown trees. She hates them. And I...
CHANG: Allen's entire logging business relies on these giant machines which allow a single worker to pull down 2,000 trees every day.
Oh, my God these trees look like toothpicks...
ALLEN: Yeah, yeah.
CHANG: ...In the jaws of that machine.
ALLEN: Yeah, it's about 150 feet tall.
CHANG: Oh.
ALLEN: And then he grabs it, and he throws it down where he wants it.
CHANG: Boom. It smells like Christmas right now.
ALLEN: There you go.
CHANG: Allen's logging operation burns through roughly 4,000 gallons of diesel per day. And the war in Iran has pushed up diesel prices so much Allen is in the red this year. But he says he would never give up his way of life here in Siskiyou County. His family goes back five generations here, and even though he's always felt at home in Siskiyou, Allen says he's always felt forgotten by California.
ALLEN: I like to refer to Siskiyou County as Baja, Oregon. And as derogative (ph) as that may be, 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. We need to leverage our natural resources so that we can demonstrate to them that we are something...
CHANG: Relevant.
ALLEN: There you go. That's a great word. Relevant. They need us. But until I convince them that they need us, they don't want us.
CHANG: Do you identify as a Californian if..
ALLEN: Oh, yeah.
CHANG: OK.
ALLEN: A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
CHANG: OK.
ALLEN: Northern California. I just had a meeting in Canada two weeks ago, and they were saying Bay Area people are saying there from Northern California, and then I...
CHANG: That's what I say.
ALLEN: Yeah, you're from Northern California.
CHANG: Yeah.
ALLEN: Well, you're central California, sweetheart.
CHANG: (Laughter).
ALLEN: I'm from Northern California. I'm 22 miles away from Oregon (ph).
CHANG: This feeling that Allen has of being dismissed, of being almost invisible here in Northern California, Allen says that feeling has only gotten worse since the new district line shoved him, a Republican, in with those so-called central California Democrats in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's a feeling that we heard all over here, from the cattle pastures to the timberlands, as well as along the muddy banks of Bogus Creek, only about 7 miles from the Oregon border. That's where we met up with rancher Ryan Walker.
RYAN WALKER: If you're going to catch any fish, you'll often see him coming through. We call this...
CHANG: This little creek is a tributary of the mighty Klamath River. You can sometimes see salmon fighting their way up from the Pacific Ocean to spawn here.
WALKER: The female salmon will make a nice little nest, and the male salmon will fertilize the eggs, and then they'll both die.
CHANG: So they don't even, like, do anything together when that fertilization is happening. And then they die after the whole thing.
WALKER: Yeah, after the whole thing, and then...
CHANG: Man, it's miserable to be a salmon.
WALKER: Then you can walk up the - well, you know...
CHANG: Walker's family has been ranching up here for 50 years. First sheep, then cattle. He's a registered independent, and I asked him, how does he feel about the torturous shape of his new district?
WALKER: I mean, of all the redistricting wars that have gone on, you're standing in what is clearly the most ridiculous district to be drawn. You know, the person who lives in Cedarville and the person who lives in - on a houseboat in Sausalito are entirely different thought process. It's just flat out not good politics because how do we go to a town hall in Sausalito...
CHANG: (Laughter).
WALKER: ...Or how does Sausalito come to a town hall in Alturas and have any kind of meaningful discussion to hash out issues? We're not a real district. This district was drawn with the purpose of making my voice less powerful. That's what gerrymandering is.
CHANG: But all of this begs a question. When you live in a sparsely populated area, how strong of a political voice should you be entitled to in a representative democracy?
WALKER: So, yes, we live in California. It's got some big urban centers that are going to drive policies for the state. You've created this state that's larger than a country, that has so many diverse issues going on. And so it becomes very unfair. I don't know that I think my voice should be outsized because I'm rural and sparse, but at the same time, there does have to be a voice.
CHANG: Any advantages to this redistricting that you could see?
WALKER: So, yeah, what - as the saying goes, ill wind indeed that doesn't blow some good. And is there a silver lining? Yeah, I think there is. Now the wolf area is going to be split among four maybe light blue districts. You know, there's going to be more congresspeople with wolf issues in their district, so perhaps there'll be a greater desire to find a comprehensive solution. For our district, the one advantage is that the entire California portion of the Klamath River is now in the same district. And there is a traditional friction between coastal communities and upland tributary communities.
CHANG: I mean, what you're saying is the Klamath River is an example of how when you consolidate conflicting interests, sometimes that can actually force a compromise outcome.
WALKER: Sure. It - well, and it just brings a force to the table that wasn't there before.
CHANG: So who are you going to vote for in November for your congressperson?
WALKER: Well, I think, as we just said, the whole point of Prop 50 was make my vote not count. So what does it matter?
CHANG: (Laughter).
WALKER: I mean, realistically.
CHANG: Are you really not going to vote?
WALKER: Oh, I'll vote on things that matter. I mean...
CHANG: But not District 2 congressperson?
WALKER: Oh, I mean, it's such a foregone conclusion at this point. It's just - it's not even...
CHANG: In fact, Walker struggled even to recall the last name of the Republican candidate in the congressional race, who's trailing way behind the Democrat.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALMORHEA'S "BOWSPRIT")
CHANG: By the way, that Democrat, Jared Huffman, he gave us a call. He says he plans to, quote, "Work hard to show up and listen to people in Modoc and Siskiyou counties" and in the other places he hopes to represent. He's taking a 950-mile road trip up there this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF BALMORHEA'S "BOWSPRIT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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