TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The latest congressional redistricting plan submitted by Gov. Ron DeSantis is a blatant attempt to give Republicans a political edge while diminishing Black and minority representation in Florida, Black lawmakers said.
“This is the most overtly racist action that you can do,” Democratic state Sen. Randolph Bracy said Thursday. Bracy represents Orlando and is running for one of the congressional districts that would lose Black Democrat voters under the governor’s proposal.
“The fact he has the gall to do something like this clearly shows what he thinks of minorities and Black voters,” Bracy said. “It’s stunning in this day and age he would try to wipe out Black representation.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, whose sprawling North Florida District 5 would be transformed into a more Republican-friendly Duval County only district, said in a statement Wednesday the new redistricting plan “is a continued scheme by DeSantis to erase minority access districts in Congress in order to create more seats for the Republican Party.”
DeSantis has submitted a plan for the Legislature to consider on next Tuesday that radically alters the state’s congressional boundaries to create a 20-8 Republican advantage.
It does so by diluting Black voting power in North Florida, Orlando and St. Petersburg, “in ways that previous courts have struck down,” Dave Wasserman, U.S. House editor of the nonpartisan @CookPolitical Report, said in a tweet.
“If this map is enacted, Florida will be sued,” tweeted Marc E. Elias, a Washington, D.C., Democratic lawyer who has litigated many election and voting rights cases.
Most recently, he represented the League of Women Voters of Florida in a successful challenge of SB 90, the state’s restrictive election law passed in 2021. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker struck down central provisions of the law, noting a decadeslong pattern of attempting to create roadblocks for minority voters.
DeSantis vetoed a bill (SB102) containing two bipartisan congressional maps approved by the Senate and House the day it was sent over to him on March 29 on the grounds it violated the 14th Amendment equal protection clause because it was not “racially neutral.” Voting rights advocates said his legal arguments were inconsistent with the Voting Rights Act and ran afoul of the Florida Fair Districts amendments.
Fair Districts are a pair of amendments to the Florida Constitution overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2010 to stop lawmakers from drawing election districts favoring incumbents and the ruling party.
DeSantis immediately called for a special session, set to begin Tuesday, directing the Legislature to come up with a plan that would achieve his goals to eliminate North Florida District 5 and still survive a potential court challenge.
On Monday, Senate President Wilton Simpson, a Trilby Republican, and House Speaker Chris Sprowls, a Palm Harbor Republican, told their members that their staff wouldn’t be drawing a map and DeSantis should send them a map he could support.
DeSantis delivered his plan Wednesday that eliminates District 5 as a Black majority district as promised. It also dilutes black Democratic voters in Orlando’s District 10 by moving a large portion of them into Republican-leaning District 11, said Matt Isbell, an election data analyst who frequently works with Democrats.
When it was created in 2015 to settle years of court fights over the 2012 congressional maps, District 10 had a 50% majority of Black Democratic voters, Isbell said. The change proposed by DeSantis would give it a 40% white Democratic majority, with 35% Black Democrats, based on voting records, he said.
Meanwhile, the Democratic-friendly District 7 held by Democrat Stephanie Murphy, who decided not to seek another term, will turn into a solidly Republican seat by picking up Volusia County Republicans, he said.
The governor’s map also makes the District 13 St. Petersburg seat held by Rep. Charlie Crist more Republican, he said.
It’s no coincidence that District 7, 10 and 13 are all open seats because the incumbents decided to step down or run for another office, Isbell said. Demings is running for U.S. Senate against Marco Rubio, and Crist is a Democratic candidate for governor.
The map also preserves two minority seats in South Florida, a change from the previous map DeSantis submitted.
Ryan Newman, the governor’s general counsel, said the plan was the result of collaboration with House and Senate leadership and draws from the map DeSantis vetoed as well as previous maps submitted by the governor.
After discussing the map with the governor’s office and reviewing it with Senate legal counsel, Senate Reapportionment Chairman Ray Rodrigues declared the map “reflects standards the Senate can support” and “incorporates many of the features of the map that previously passed the Senate with bipartisan support.”
The governor’s staff will present the redistricting plan to Senate and House redistricting committees on Tuesday.
“What Rodrigues said is a complete reversal of what he’s been saying,” Bracy said. “The map we passed complies with the Florida Constitution and civil rights laws.”
At the time, Rodrigues said diluting the Black vote would be a violation of the Voting Rights Act and Fair Districting. “Now he’s agreeing with DeSantis,” Bracy said.
He said that’s because DeSantis has not signed the budget yet and has threatened to veto lawmakers’ projects and primary them if they don’t toe the line, Bracy said. “He’s bullying them to pass a map they know is unconstitutional.”
In practical terms, it’s been confusing to try to run a campaign when your district keeps changing, Bracy said. “You campaign in one district based on the map that passes, and it changes. Then we’re looking to compete in this new district and you know lawsuits will be filed and it will change again.”
Election experts said it was unlikely that the matter will be resolved before the 2022 elections, which means the map approved next week will be the one in place this year.
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