Florida's Democratic Party Cries Foul Over GOP's Proposal To Redraw Florida's Congressional Districts

Florida Phoenix

December 1, 2021

Florida Democrats are complaining that congressional maps proposed this week by the state House Select Committee on Redistricting tilt in favor of the Republicans dominating the Legislature.

One of the maps would produce 17 congressional districts in which former President Donald Trump beat Joe Biden last year, out of 28 total seats following the most recent Census. The other would produce 18 seats won by the former president. The proposals are available here and here.

As it stands, Republicans control 16 out of 27 existing congressional districts and Democrats 10, although a special election next month will fill a vacant seat formerly held by the late Alcee Hastings, a Democrat.

“The draft congressional redistricting maps released by the Florida House this week are reflective of the Florida GOP’s clear and deliberate plan to cripple democracy in the Sunshine State. Not content with restricting voting access and criminalizing peaceful protests they are now moving towards distorting our congressional districts for partisan gain over the next decade,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz said in a written statement on Wednesday.

“Our system of government is based on the principle of voters electing their representatives, not the other way around. The gerrymandered draft maps presented by the Florida House, developed with hardly any public input, are more of the same self-serving, backroom wheeling and dealing that has steadily degraded democracy and set our state back over the last two decades of Republican rule,” Diaz said.

Trump defeated Biden in Florida by fewer than 744,000 votes out of nearly 11 million cast, or 51.2 percent to 47.9 percent.

The House proposed maps still face review by the redistricting panel and full chamber, plus reconciliation with maps being designed by the Florida Senate.

Democrat Linda Stewart of Orange County has indicated map drawers there are keeping politics out of their work. However, Cecile Scoon, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida has complained that the Senate has failed to release detailed data about voting patterns.

POLITICO reported earlier this week that U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy’s seat appears to be problematic. Here’s what the media outlet wrote:

“One seat getting specific attention is the 7th Congressional District, an Orlando-area seat held by Democrat Stephanie Murphy. One House map would slice the seat up, giving all of increasingly Democratic Seminole County to a district currently represented by Republican Mike Waltz. It also shifts the western boundary into largely African-American areas of Orlando, covering much of the territory represented currently by Democratic Rep. Val Demings, a Black former Orlando police chief vacating her seat to run for U.S. Senate against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

“It leaves Murphy, who is Vietnamese-American, with the choice of running in a seat that is now slightly Republican-leaning, or a Democratic seat whose demographic makeup is tailor made for a Black candidate.”

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