'This Is Actually Illegal': DeSantis Unveils Unconstitutionally Rigged Congressional Map

The new map is projected to increase that number to 24. Four Democrat-held seats will be most affected, with Reps. Kathy Castor, Lois Frankel, Darren Soto, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz facing markedly different maps and Rep. Jared Moskowitz in a new district.Florida voters are being denied any say on the new electoral maps. Ron DeSantis knows they won’t go for it, which is why he’s bypassing them — just like they did in Texas. This is actually ILLEGAL. In California and Virginia, voters got to decide.StopIllegalFloridaMaps[image or embed]— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) April 27, 2026 at 12:19 PMHowever, the mid-decade partisan redistricting is expressly illegal under Florida's Constitution, which states in Section 20 of Article II that “no apportionment plan or individual district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party.”While Republicans claim the new maps are racially neutral, state Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-42) called that assertion obvious horseshit.The map goes out of its way to split up the growing Puerto Rican population in Central Florida between multiple districts. It's racial cracking at a textbook level, she said, referring to the practice of drawing maps so that minority communities are spread across multiple districts, depriving them of the opportunity to form effective voting blocs.Republicans lost a HUGE special election in Florida and now they're determined to CHEAT in the November election by rigging the maps in a back room deal. Florida voters banned partisan political maps 15 years ago.DO NOT STANDBY AND LET THEM.StopIllegalFloridaMaps— Grant Stern (@grantstern.bsky.social) April 27, 2026 at 1:38 PMUS House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) warned last week that Florida's move could backfire.If Florida Republicans proceed with this illegal scheme, they will only create more prime pick-up opportunities for Democrats, Jeffries said. We are prepared to take them all on, and we are prepared to win.”National and state Democrats are already vowing legal challenges to Florida's plan.“If DeSantis forces this unconstitutional gerrymander forward in Florida, it won’t be because the voters asked him to,” National Democratic Redistricting Committee president John Bisognano said Monday. Republicans will only have themselves to blame when they face resistance in the courtroom and at the ballot box for this egregious power grab.” Poll after poll has shown that the overwhelming majority of Floridian voters do not want a mid-decade gerrymander, Bisognano added. They aren’t alone. Local editorial boards across the state are slamming this blatantly partisan power grab.The gerrymandering war kicked off last year when, under pressure from President Donald Trump, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature redrew the state's congressional map in a bid to eliminate all Democratic districts. The right-wing US Supreme Court gave Texas its blessing to use the rigged map in a ruling last December.Texas' move was countered last November when California voters approved redrawn districts favoring Democrats.Since then, Republican-controlled legislatures in states including Missouri and North Carolina and Democratic-controlled states like Virginia, Maryland, and Washington have redrawn or are in the process of redrawing their congressional maps.Last week, a district court judge subsequently blocked Virginia's new map a day after it was approved, setting up a battle in the state Supreme Court.Responding to last week's voter-approved redistricting in Virginia, former US Attorney General Eric Holder noted major differences between the bottom-up redraws in Democratic states and top-down rigging by Republicans.“The mere existence of this special election stands in stark contrast to the gerrymanders forced on constituents in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina and shows that voters are tired of Republican attempts to silence their power at the voting booth, Holder said.All Voting Is Local Action Florida state director Brad Ashwell said in a statement Monday that it is clear that the end goal in this state is to redraw maps in order to give one party an advantage over another, essentially putting partisan politics over the voters.What’s even more egregious is that this move is in direct conflict with the fair districts ballot amendments these same voters approved by a supermajority in 2010, meaning our governor and lawmakers are directly undermining our state Constitution and the will of the voters, he continued.“This move is unnecessary, illegal, and a power grab, and it takes away time from addressing real issues, like passing a state budget, which hasn’t happened yet, Ashwell said. Additionally, passing and implementing a new map will create new precincts right before the election, causing voter confusion and unnecessary work for local election officials who are already bogged down by frequent policy changes and new hurdles.For once, Florida should stand by its voters and election officials and shut this undemocratic move down, he added. No new maps!”'This isn't Desantis' first foray into gerrymandering. A state judge in 2022 invalidated parts of a previously redrawn congressional map, siding with plaintiffs in a lawsuit who argued that Republicans violated the state Constitution by racially rigging districts. However, in 2024 a federal appellate panel ruled that Florida could proceed with use of the map.