The newly drawn district map in Florida, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), is already triggering a flurry of lawsuits.
DeSantis this week shared an image of the new map, formally announcing his approval, writing, “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered.”
However, on Tuesday, yet another lawsuit bubbled up. Common Cause, the League of Women Voters Florida, as well as the League of United Latin American Citizens filed a lawsuit in Florida’s Second Circuit Court in Leon County, according to Click Orlando. That now makes three lawsuits challenging the newly-drawn map.
One of the organizations, Common Cause, claims to take issue with gerrymandering as well as other issues such as voter ID, or as they call it, voter “suppression.”
“The Governor’s ploy to impose maps for an unfair partisan advantage is exactly why voters made it illegal in 2010 — and why we’re going to court,” Common Cause’s Florida Executive Director Amy Keith said, according to Florida Politics.
“This Governor and Republican lawmakers will stop at nothing to put their finger on the scale because they are afraid of being held accountable by the people,” she claimed. “We expect the courts to be the adults in the room and honor the Florida Constitution and the will of Florida voters.”
The new map, which DeSantis argued was needed given the massive population boom in Florida since 2020, would likely result in a 4-seat pickup for Republicans, bringing the GOP congressional delegation from 20 representatives to 24 in the Sunshine State.
DeSantis said the proposed map “more fairly represents the makeup of Florida today” and delivered a very pointed message to Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the latter of whom threatened to go after the GOP in Florida if the governor moved forward with the map.
“And what I said was, go ahead, make my day,” DeSantis said.
“You want to come down here and spend money and in Florida? Roll the dice and take your chances, but don’t think that you can come down here, issue threats to us, and somehow you’re going to make us flinch,” the governor warned.
Republicans have experienced massive growth in Florida in recent years, overtaking Democrats in terms of voter registration in November 2021. As of March 31, registered Republicans bested Democrats in Florida by nearly 1.5 million voters. As a result, Florida has shifted from a purple swing state to more solid red, seeing a “red wave” in the last election cycle, particularly. In fact, Florida’s Miami-Dade County turned red for the first time in three decades for a presidential election – a major milestone for the Sunshine State’s GOP.
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