Ron DeSantis Poised for Huge Blow if Florida Election Map Redrawn

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been accused of racially discriminating by intervening to create a congressional map erasing a seat held by a Black Democrat and providing significant gains to Republicans in the state, lawyers have argued.

On Tuesday, a federal trial began in connection to a lawsuit filed by civil rights groups and voters who have argued the map drawn in 2022, which helped the GOP gain four seats in the Florida legislature, was unconstitutional.

Common Cause Florida, the Florida branch of the NAACP and Fair Districts Now are suing to have the map which saw a North Florida district held by Rep. Al Lawson, a Black congressman, eliminated.

The trial, which could run into the end of next week, is one of a number of lawsuits and court battles regarding alleged discriminatory gerrymandering across the country. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court rejected a congressional map put forward by Republicans in Alabama that includes only one majority-Black district for the second time.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to Iowa voters gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on March 10, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. Getty Images

On the first day of trial, attorney Greg Baker, who is representing the plaintiff, accused DeSantis of having "pushed and pushed" to endorse the disputed congressional map which helped the Florida GOP pick up four House seats at last year's midterms elections.

"He pressed his argument by sound bite bullying," Baker added, noting the Florida governor posted on social media in 2022 that he would "veto the congressional reapportionment plan currently being debated by the House. DOA [dead on arrival] while the legislature was debating a map that would have kept a Black performing district in North Florida."

In a pre-trial brief, DeSantis was also accused of having "hijacked" the redistricting process in an "unprecedented manner, thumbing his nose at the Florida Supreme Court, the Florida Legislature, and the Florida Constitution."

"Eventually, he forced through his own congressional map, which surgically disassembled Benchmark CD-5. In so doing, the Governor—and, by extension, the Legislature—committed intentional racial discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments," the court filings added.

DeSantis' office has been contacted for comment via email.

On Tuesday, Alex Kelly, the acting chief of staff for DeSantis who was the chief mapmaker who drew up the 2022 map in question, said the Florida governor believed the old map violated the equal protection clause, by essentially favoring Black voters over white.

"He never once commented on eliminating a Black opportunity district," Kelly said regarding what he described as DeSantis' "race-neutral" strategy.

"He asked me to draw a compliant map," he said.

Mohammad Jazil, a lawyer representing the state, added that DeSantis' goal was to create a congressional map that more relied on natural boundaries than be focused on race or party.

The ongoing federal trial is separate from a legal challenge in state court.

Earlier in September, Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh ruled that the map was unconstitutional and as it diminishes the ability of Black voters in North Florida the candidate of their choice, sent it back to the Florida Legislature to be redrawn.

The decision has been placed before the 1st District Court of Appeal.