Florida’s Redistricting Battle Is Test Case for Racial Gerrymanders

Florida currently faces a rarity: a showdown between Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled legislature, which typically follows the governor’s lead. At stake is the state’s congressional map, which has to expand by one district to accommodate the Sunshine State’s booming population. The main point of contention is whether to keep a long, narrow, lizard-shaped district along the state’s northern border. That district exists only for racial purposes: to unite distant African-American communities stretching from Tallahassee in the west to Jacksonville in the east. DeSantis wants to end the racial gerrymander, and he threatens to veto any map that includes it.

The lizard-shaped district is currently Florida’s fifth congressional district, and now Florida’s third district on the Florida house’s maps. It crosses eight counties over 200 miles, narrows to three miles wide at one point, and forms a spur around Jacksonville. The two counties at opposite ends of the state contain 82.77 percent of the district’s voters; the voters from the other six counties are, for all practical purposes, just a road to connect the two. As currently drawn, it isn’t a majority-black district, and the new version wouldn’t be either, but proponents argue that it would have enough black voters to offer an “opportunity” for an effective voting majority, in part because Democrats would be a majority in the district, and black voters would be a majority of the district’s Democrats. It is currently represented by Al Lawson, a Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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Florida currently faces a rarity: a showdown between Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled legislature, which typically follows the governor’s lead. At stake is the state’s congressional map, which has to expand by one district to accommodate the Sunshine State’s booming population. The main point of contention is whether to keep a long, narrow, lizard-shaped district along the state’s northern border. That district exists only for racial purposes: to unite distant African-American communities stretching from Tallahassee in the west to Jacksonville in the east. DeSantis wants to end the racial gerrymander, and he threatens to veto any map that includes it.

The lizard-shaped district is currently Florida’s fifth congressional district, and now Florida’s third district on the Florida house’s maps. It crosses eight counties over 200 miles, narrows to three miles wide at one point, and forms a spur around Jacksonville. The two counties at opposite ends of the state contain 82.77 percent of the district’s voters; the voters from the other six counties are, for all practical purposes, just a road to connect the two. As currently drawn, it isn’t a majority-black district, and the new version wouldn’t be either, but proponents argue that it would have enough black voters to offer an “opportunity” for an effective voting majority, in part because Democrats would be a majority in the district, and black voters would be a majority of the district’s Democrats. It is currently represented by Al Lawson, a Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus.