Amid the post-census redistricting process in the state of Florida, the office of the state’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis opted over the weekend to submit its own proposed set of Congressional district lines for consideration. Although state legislators still have to decide which lines to pass, the governor has the power to veto Congressional district maps — so clearly, this proposal from DeSantis’s office carries a lot of weight. Ordinarily, Florida governors don’t submit proposed Congressional district maps during this process — so it’s clear that DeSantis and his team hoped to make an impact. Subsequently, voting rights lawyer Marc Elias strongly suggested on Twitter that the DeSantis map proposal would be the subject of future litigation.
.@GovRonDeSantis, Marc Elias has a message for you:
Get ready to be deposed. https://t.co/TmJzAzDNIl
— Aaron Parnas (@AaronParnas) January 18, 2022
Unsurprisingly, the proposed map that DeSantis’s office put forward stands to benefit Republicans at the expense of marginalized communities, such as the state’s Black voters. In apparent reference to DeSantis — although he might have had the governor’s chief legal counsel, Ryan Newman, in mind, Elias pointedly commented as follows:
‘I look forward to my team deposing him and his staff to fully understand the illegal partisan motivations of this map.’
I look forward to my team deposing him and his staff to fully understand the illegal partisan motivations of this map. https://t.co/WfwxzAhbI0
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 18, 2022
As explained by POLITICO, “DeSantis’ map would cut in half the number of African American districts from four on current proposed congressional maps to two, while boosting the number of seats Donald Trump would have won in 2020 to 18 from the 16 on the map being considered by the GOP-led Florida Senate.” According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Black residents comprise nearly 17 percent of the Florida population — and DeSantis’s office has now proposed putting a Congressional district map in place with just two districts that feature Black majorities out of a total of 28. Meanwhile, Trump won the state of Florida in the 2020 presidential election with a little over 51.2 percent of the vote — a much smaller margin than might be suggested by a proposal to give 18 of the state’s 28 U.S. House districts to majorities that supported Trump.
The future of voting rights and redistricting are being decided in courtrooms around the country.
Quite literally, democracy is on the docket.https://t.co/8iFP5fL7em
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 16, 2022
Alongside its other proposed shifts, POLITICO explains that the map that DeSantis’s team put forward would also “wipe out” the current 5th Congressional District — which includes Jacksonville areas with substantial Black populations and is currently represented by Rep. Al Lawson (D-Fla.), who is Black. Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) said that DeSantis’s proposed Congressional district map “is not only unconstitutional, but it dilutes Black representation in Florida.” To be clear, it’s not yet certain which map might end up getting passed by Florida legislators and eventually signed into law by DeSantis — but the fact that the governor’s team has proposed such a map is not a good sign. It mirrors GOP-led gerrymandering elsewhere, like in Texas, where Republican state officials gave two new U.S. House districts to white majorities, even though non-white residents were responsible for the majority of the population growth that granted Texas those seats.
ICYMI: The Supreme Court of Ohio struck down both legislative and congressional redistricting maps last week. The court found that the maps were gerrymandered to unfairly favor Republicans, violating the state constitution. https://t.co/1dSeVEIDOQ
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) January 18, 2022
