DeSantis Proposal "Screws" Black Representation

Ron DeSantis's latest affront to election fairness is a significant one: his proposed congressional map that would create four more Republican-leaning districts and probably result in three fewer Democratic congresspeople representing Florida. The move comes after DeSantis vetoed a map proposed by the Republican-controlled legislature. After the governor's action, Senate President Wilton Simpson announced the legislature would not even try to come up with another map, and would only consider one of which DeSantis approves.

So what has DeSantis now proposed? A map that would carve up a district currently held by an African American, resulting in 20 Republican seats and 8 Democratic ones (instead of the current 16/11 split), based on 2020 electoral data. Matthew Isbell, a leading Florida-based Democratic data consultant who analyzed the governor's map, offered this blunt assessment: "It's so blatantly partisan. The only way you can create a 20-and-8 map...was to basically say, 'Screw Black representation.'"

The maps proposed by the legislature were bad enough: they would have slightly advantaged Republicans. But DeSantis took it to a whole new level, proposing a radical plan that would provide his party with significant and unfair gains, dissolving a largely Black district currently held by African-American Al Lawson (D-Tallahassee) into several Republican districts, and watering down the Black vote in the district currently represented by Val Demings (D-Orlando). DeSantis' plan would leave the state with just one majority Black voting district.

The plan also runs counter to Florida's prohibition on partisan gerrymandering by tampering with the electorate in the Tampa Bay-area 13th District, currently held by Charlie Crist (D-St. Petersburg), who is running in the Democratic primary for governor, challenging DeSantis. In DeSantis' maps, voters from Democratic areas of St. Petersburg would be shifted into another district, making the 13th more Republican-leaning. Under the Fair Districts constitutional amendments that Florida voters approved in 2010, legislators are forbidden to draw districts that intentionally favor or disfavor incumbents or parties. But no surprise here: that's exactly what DeSantis is trying to pull!

And why would Republican legislators -- who presumably know better -- go along with DeSantis' radical undemocratic plan of racial and partisan gerrymandering? Consider the position of State Senator Simpson. Simpson is leaving the Senate and running for Florida Commissioner of Agriculture. He has made it known he would like DeSantis' endorsement, and a great way to ensure that is to cave in and approve whatever the bully in the Governor's Mansion wants. The Senate has not yet rubber stamped the governor's map -- but it's just a matter of time, and Simpson will get it done. When asked why he hasn't yet endorsed Simpson, DeSantis said, simply, "Look, we've got some more work to do." Indeed.