By Darius Spearman (africanelements)

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Florida is once again the center of a fierce political storm over who gets to draw the lines of power. Voting rights organizers and Black-led groups have sounded the alarm on a new push to redraw the state’s congressional map years before the next regular cycle (wlrn.org). They argue this mid-decade redistricting plan is a calculated move to expand Republican control and deliberately weaken the influence of voters in already marginalized communities (theguardian.com). With plans for rallies at the state Capitol, activists are fighting what they call a blatant attempt to "rig the maps," especially after voters previously approved constitutional rules to stop exactly this kind of political manipulation (pbs.org).

This current battle is not happening in a vacuum. It is the latest chapter in a long, painful history of struggles over fair representation in a state with a rapidly growing and diversifying population (pbs.org). For Black Floridians, the fight over maps is a fight for their voice in a political system that has often tried to silence them. The headline-grabbing conflict is deeply rooted in decades of legal battles, citizen-led reforms, and the persistent effort to ensure every vote counts equally, a principle that is now facing one of its most direct challenges yet.

To understand the fight in Florida, one must first understand the process of redistricting. Redistricting is the redrawing of electoral district boundaries for seats in Congress or state legislatures (lwvspa.org). This process normally happens once every ten years, right after the U.S. Census releases new population data (lwvspa.org). The main goal is to make sure each district has roughly the same number of people, which upholds the core democratic principle of "one person, one vote" (lwvspa.org). How these lines are drawn, however, can dramatically shape election outcomes for the next decade.

When the line-drawing process is manipulated for political gain, it is called gerrymandering (lwvspa.org). This practice involves drawing district boundaries to give an unfair advantage to one political party or group over another. There are two main types of gerrymandering at the heart of the Florida conflict. Partisan gerrymandering is when maps are drawn to help one political party win more seats (lwvspa.org). Racial gerrymandering, on the other hand, involves drawing lines specifically to dilute the voting power of minority communities. While federal courts have often treated partisan gerrymandering as a political issue outside their control, they have consistently ruled that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional (lwvspa.org).

Florida has a long history of unfair electoral maps that predates the current controversy. For more than a century, the state suffered from severe malapportionment (pbs.org). Malapportionment is the creation of electoral districts with wildly unequal populations (lwvspa.org). This practice meant that votes in less populated, often rural, districts had far more weight than votes in more crowded urban areas, violating the "one person, one vote" principle (lwvspa.org). Consequently, this system gave disproportionate power to rural areas for generations.

A significant shift began in the 1990s, influenced by amendments to the federal Voting Rights Act in 1982 that provided stronger legal protections for minority voters (pbs.org). Following the 1990 census, Florida gained four new congressional seats. The subsequent redistricting led to the creation of more minority-majority districts, which are districts where a racial or ethnic minority group makes up the majority of the voting-age population (lwvspa.org). These new districts were crucial. They enabled the election of three African American and two Hispanic members of Congress, giving these communities meaningful representation for the first time in the modern era (pbs.org).

By 2010, Florida voters were fed up with politicians drawing maps to protect themselves and their parties. In a major victory for activists, 63% of voters approved the Fair Districts Amendments to the state constitution (pbs.org). This citizen-led initiative was created to stop both partisan and racial gerrymandering. The amendments established what are known as "Tier 1 Standards," which explicitly prohibit drawing districts with the intent to favor a political party or an incumbent (pbs.org). Furthermore, they forbid drawing lines that would diminish the ability of racial or language minorities to elect representatives of their choice (commoncause.org).

The first test of these new amendments came after the 2010 census. The Florida Legislature drew maps in 2012 that failed to comply with the new constitutional rules, which resulted in years of litigation (pbs.org). The Florida Supreme Court played a decisive role, repeatedly ordering the legislature to redraw the maps. Ultimately, the court rejected the legislature's attempts and in 2015-2016 approved maps submitted by Common Cause Florida and the League of Women Voters Florida (pbs.org). This outcome was widely seen as a landmark victory for fair representation and a powerful demonstration of the Fair Districts Amendments in action.

The 2022 map resulted in 20 Republicans (Bronze) and 8 Democrats (Dark Olive Green) in Florida's 28-member delegation. Source: Initial Research Data (pbs.org).

The progress made under the Fair Districts Amendments faced a severe challenge following the 2020 census, which awarded Florida a new 28th congressional seat due to its significant population growth (pbs.org). Governor Ron DeSantis took the unprecedented step of rejecting the legislature's map and pushing his own, much more aggressive proposal (pbs.org). The DeSantis map radically redrew the state's electoral landscape, and its most significant impact was on Black voters in North Florida. His plan dismantled a district, formerly represented by Black Democrat Al Lawson, that stretched from Tallahassee to Jacksonville.

This district was home to a 46% Black voting-age population and had a long history of electing a Black representative to Congress (pbs.org). The DeSantis map shattered this community’s voting power, carving the district into four new districts, all of which were heavily Republican-leaning and had much smaller percentages of Black voters (pbs.org). As a direct result, Al Lawson lost his 2022 re-election bid to a white Republican. Despite legal challenges, the Florida Supreme Court, now with a majority of DeSantis appointees, upheld the map in July 2025 (pbs.org). Shockingly, the court claimed that restoring the Black-opportunity district would constitute "impermissible racial gerrymandering," a legal concept usually meant to prevent the unconstitutional use of race in drawing lines (lwvspa.org).

Now, even before the next census, Florida leaders are pushing to redraw the maps again. Governor DeSantis and Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez are championing a mid-decade redistricting effort (pbs.org). This move is reportedly part of a national strategy, with President Donald Trump encouraging Republican-led states to pursue aggressive mid-cycle redraws to increase the party's majority in the U.S. House ahead of the 2026 midterm elections (theguardian.com). Activists and voting rights groups have condemned the proposal as an unprecedented power grab that is illegal under Florida's constitution.

Opponents argue that the Fair Districts Amendments were intended to create stable maps for a decade at a time, preventing politicians from repeatedly changing the rules for their own benefit (pbs.org). As Jessica Lowe-Minor, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, stated, this is "an unprecedented attempt to redistrict in the middle of a cycle without a new census to justify those numbers" (pbs.org). Black-led groups like Equal Ground Education Fund and Action Fund are at the forefront of the opposition. Their executive director, Genesis Robinson, called it "a mid-decade redistricting process designed to tip the scales of power for political purposes and silence voters" (pbs.org).

A September 2025 poll found a majority of Floridians (55%) oppose redrawing congressional maps mid-decade. Source: Common Cause Poll (pbs.org).

State leaders have offered several justifications for this extraordinary move. Governor DeSantis has cited a need to address "racial gerrymandering," potential errors in the 2020 census data, and a pending U.S. Supreme Court case about the Voting Rights Act that could provide new guidance (pbs.org). However, these arguments are viewed with deep skepticism by opponents. The Supreme Court case mentioned, likely *Allen v. Milligan*, was decided in June 2023 and actually strengthened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voting power (lwvspa.org). Furthermore, trying to redraw maps based on alleged census errors or population shifts without new official census data is a legally weak argument (lwvspa.org).

Public opinion is firmly against the state's leaders on this issue. A September 2025 poll found that 55% of Floridians oppose mid-decade redistricting, including a plurality of Republican voters (pbs.org). The same poll showed overwhelming support for reforms, with 76% of Floridians wanting independent, citizen-led commissions to draw district lines instead of politicians (pbs.org). The Florida Democratic Party slammed the proposal as "nothing more than a desperate attempt to rig the system and silence voters before the 2026 election," arguing that the governor is "not responding to population growth, he's responding to polls" (floridadems.org).

This demographic shift underscores the importance of fair maps for communities of color. Source: Initial Research Data (pbs.org).

The practical implications of diminished minority voices go far beyond losing a single congressional seat (lwvspa.org). When Black voting power is diluted through gerrymandering, it directly impacts policy and resource allocation. Without strong advocates in Congress and the state legislature, issues critical to Black communities, such as education funding, healthcare access, affordable housing, and criminal justice reform, can be easily ignored (lwvspa.org). Elected officials in gerrymandered districts have less incentive to be accountable to minority constituents because their political survival depends on catering to the majority demographic that was engineered to elect them (lwvspa.org).

This fight is a continuation of the long struggle for political power in Florida. The state's population grew by nearly 15% between 2010 and 2020, and approximately 90% of that growth came from non-white residents (pbs.org). Black voters make up 15.5% of the state's voting-age population, while Hispanic voters account for 25% (pbs.org). Yet, the current congressional map, which produced a 20-8 Republican supermajority, does not reflect this diversity (pbs.org). Another redraw could add two more Republican seats, further cementing a political power structure that is out of step with the people it claims to represent and systematically marginalizing communities of color.

Darius Spearman is a professor of Black Studies at San Diego City College, where he has been teaching for over 20 years. He is the founder of African Elements, a media platform dedicated to providing educational resources on the history and culture of the African diaspora. Through his work, Spearman aims to empower and educate by bringing historical context to contemporary issues affecting the Black community.