TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In a rare disagreement with the Republican-controlled Legislature, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the state's newly drawn congressional maps Tuesday, and lawmakers will hold a special session in April to redraw the maps.
What You Need To Know
- Gov. Ron DeSantis has rejected redrawn Florida's congressional redistricting maps
- A special session will be held April 19-22 to come up with a new map
- A map must be approved and lawsuits resolved before the June qualifying period for federal candidates
- DeSantis said it's possible other legislation could be considered during the session
The veto puts more pressure on the Republican-dominated Legislature to approve a map and resolve any resulting lawsuits before the June 13 to 17 qualifying period for federal candidates. Florida is also creating a new 28th district because of population growth.
“In their, I guess, understandable zeal to try to comply with what they believe the Florida constitution required, they forgot to make sure what they were doing complied with the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” DeSantis said during a news conference.
Republican Senate President Wilton Simpson and Republican House Speaker Chris Sprowls told lawmakers to return to the Capitol on April 19 to 22.
Senate President @WiltonSimpson and I have issued a joint statement regarding Florida Redistricting and the upcoming special session April 19-22. pic.twitter.com/oQzDtjZ60l
— Chris Sprowls (@ChrisSprowls) March 29, 2022
“Our goal is for Florida to have a new congressional map passed by the Legislature, signed by the governor, and upheld by the court if challenged,” the leaders said in a joint statement.
At the news conference, DeSantis said, “We're not going to have it drawn by a court.”
In 2010, voters approved a constitutional amendment aimed at preventing gerrymandering. It states that political maps have to be drawn in a way that does not favor or hurt a candidate or party, that districts should be compact and contiguous and that the ability of minorities to elect members to Congress should not be diminished.
DeSantis argues that a later U.S. Supreme Court ruling determined that districts can't be drawn with race being the primary factor. The governor's map would likely result in two Black members of Congress losing their seats: Democratic U.S. Reps. Al Lawson and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.
So we're having another special session because #DeSantis wants to eliminate Black majority congressional districts?
— Rep. Carlos G Smith (@CarlosGSmith) March 29, 2022
Cool, cool. pic.twitter.com/74Ourcg37H
DeSantis' proposal also would likely give Republicans more Florida seats than the maps approved by the House and Senate. That would benefit DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, if he were to be elected to the White House.
DeSantis interjected himself into the once-a-decade process of drawing new political lines following the federal census by submitting his own map. The Senate did not take the governor's map into consideration, and the House approved two maps, a primary map to try to appease DeSantis and a second in case the first map was found to be unconstitutional.
“From the beginning of the redistricting process, DeSantis has been force-feeding his desired map onto House and Senate leadership resulting in a ridiculous two-map legislative submission that cowardly attempted to appease his racist political agenda,” Democratic state Rep. Kelly Skidmore said in a news release.
While the House was debating the bill, DeSantis used Twitter to say the plan was “DOA."
Lawson predicted the DeSantis map won't hold up in court.
“DeSantis made it clear that his ultimate objective was to cut the number of African Americans and Hispanic Americans serving in Congress," Lawson said in a news release. “The fact that DeSantis justifies his goal to create racial disparities in congressional representation by citing the constitutional amendment created following the Civil War for the very purpose of remedying those same disparities is absurd.”
The following video from DeSantis' news conference Tuesday includes more details on why the governor vetoed the maps.
Gov. DeSantis announces a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s continuation of the transportation mask mandate. https://t.co/tiu5F1NaGA
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 29, 2022
DeSantis said it was possible that other legislation also could be considered during the session.