TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Senate on Wednesday approved the congressional redistricting map that Gov. Ron DeSantis submitted to lawmakers by a 24-15 vote.

The measure will now move on to the Florida House, and if it is approved there, it would land on DeSantis' desk for his approval.

Debate and approval of the congressional map was the original purpose of the Florida Legislature's special session that he called for this week. DeSantis had submitted the map last week. That process began Tuesday as DeSantis' announcement about going after the Disney Corporation’s special taxing status dominated the early news out of Tallahassee.

DeSantis' map is controversial for a couple of reasons: It would eliminate two of Florida's four Black majority congressional districts (Districts 5 and 10) and ultimately increase the number of congressional Republicans who will likely be elected this November.

Alex Kelly, the governor’s deputy chief of staff, went before the Senate Committee on Reapportionment Tuesday afternoon for several hours to lay out the reasons why DeSantis believes his map is more constitutionally sound than the ones created by the GOP-led Legislature that he vetoed last month. 

“It is a highly scrutinized process to draw a district based on race, racial reasons," Kelly said. "And to do so, there must be a very narrowly tailored compelling interest to do so, and so absent that, it’s unlawful to do so."

In an unprecedented move, DeSantis, who is a potential 2024 presidential candidate, interjected himself into the once-a-decade process of drawing new political lines after the federal census by submitting his own congressional map.

Democrats slammed their GOP colleagues about the process, saying that they had abdicated their responsibilities by deferring to DeSantis map.

“I mean, why even have a legislative branch?” Congressman Charlie Crist said to reporters earlier in the day. The Democratic candidate for governor added that “we’re supposed to have three co-equal branches of government. And this flies in the face of that, and I think that it’s inappropriate.”

“Who are we? Are we the Senate, or are we going to allow this process to be highjacked in the way that it’s being highjacked right now,” said South Florida Dem. Sen. Shevrin Jones on the floor during debate of the measure.

“This is a stage four malignancy, and this will be the death of democracy,” added Tampa state Sen. Janet Cruz.

The Florida 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.

Instead of drawing up new maps after DeSantis' veto, the Republican-led Legislature deferred the task to the governor the second time around.

Orlando Democratic state Sen. Randolph Bracy grilled Kelly on why the governor believes that Congressional District 10 in the Orlando area should no longer be a predominantly Black congressional district. Kelly's answer turned the issue back on the Florida House.

“Essentially what the House articulated is that the minority community is not on its own  — it does not on its own have enough strength to elect a candidate of is choice,” he said.

Hours before the Legislature convened, activists and several Democrats appeared at a press conference on the front steps of the Old Capitol building to express their displeasure with the governor and his proposed redistricted congressional map.

“It was four (majority Black congressional districts) and now you have to have it down to two?” said Tampa Democratic Rep. Dianne Hart. “You know, it’s a very sad day, and I cannot understand why he would be so adamant about reducing Black opportunities to vote.”

DeSantis has emphasized that congressional seats should be “race neutral.” That phrase bothers South Florida Democratic Sen. Bobby Powell.

“The idea of being race neutral is designed to lock Black people out of economic prosperity and to prevent diversity and inclusion among the people who actually have the talents and skills and ability to sit at high levels of not only government, but at executive offices," he said.

Both chambers of the Legislature held several committee meetings throughout the day Tuesday. The Senate met back as a body in the late afternoon.

Speaker of the House Chris Sprowls said that the special session is expected to finish its business on Thursday.

There was one senator not present at today’s vote. That was Miami-Dade Democrat Annette Taddeo, another candidate for governor. She tweeted last week that she would only attend if the session dealt with property insurance or the state’s affordable housing crisis, but would now show up “to kiss his ring and waste taxpayer money for an unconstitutional map that erases Black and Brown voices from the electoral process.”