Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has called lawmakers back to Tallahassee, where they could redraw the state’s congressional maps to be even more favorable for the GOP.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is proposing a new congressional map to try to flip four seats to the House for Republicans. Republicans started the gamesmanship last year with a bid to flip House seats in Texas and other states. Democrats in blue states have since responded to make the gerrymandering a wash, and now Florida tries to regain the Republican edge. Here’s WFSU’s Tristan Wood.
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TRISTAN WOOD, BYLINE: Downtown Hollywood is in Florida’s 25th congressional district and currently represented by Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She’s been in Congress for two decades. DeSantis’ proposed map would make her seat Republican-favored. Many of the locals questioned about the redistricting plan had no idea it was happening. But those who did, like Michael Molina, weren’t happy about it.
MICHAEL MOLINA: Not very surprising, knowing DeSantis and the Republican Party in Florida and how they’ve operated the last, like, 30 years.
WOOD: The reshuffling is primarily centered in areas around Tampa, South Florida and Orlando, three places in the state with higher concentrations of Democratic voters. But elected Republicans aren’t openly talking about the politics of it. Political gerrymandering here is illegal. Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2010 against it. Here’s Florida State University Election Law Center director Michael Morley explaining.
MICHAEL MORLEY: Unlike states that lack these state constitutional prohibitions on partisan gerrymandering, the Florida legislature has to be able to point to these politically neutral factors, politically neutral considerations.
WOOD: DeSantis is arguing the redraw is due to a pending U.S. Supreme Court case. It’s re-evaluating whether drawing maps to ensure minority groups get representation is unconstitutional.
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RON DESANTIS: I’m very confident, if there’s a map that is consistent with what that opinion will eventually say, that that’s going to be a map that is going to be upheld going forward.
WOOD: But when I asked voters about the process, they weren’t buying that it’s not about politics. Here’s Michael Molina’s reaction to my question.
MOLINA: (Laughter) No. (Laughter) Everything he’s – does is, like, partisan. Like, all the time.
WOOD: Abdelilah Skhir with the ACLU of Florida agrees. He thinks the motivation is the same horse-trading other states have done.
ABDELILAH SKHIR: This attempt to rig voting maps to favor one party over another is inherently illegal and unconstitutional.
WOOD: Republicans hold supermajorities in Florida’s House and Senate. Today, they are meeting for a special session and will decide the fate of the map sometime this week.
For NPR News, I’m Tristan Wood in Tallahassee.
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