The chamber voted 68-38 to send the card to the DeSantis bureau. DeSantis, whose office unveiled the card and defended its validity in this week’s testimony, is expected to sign it. The Senate adopted the card on Wednesday, also in a party vote.
The approved card could help Republicans win four seats in the US House of Representatives in November.
The map dismantles Florida’s 5th Congressional District, currently represented by Democrat Al Lawson, which connects black communities from Tallahassee to Jacksonville. Instead, Jacksonville, the state’s largest African-American city, is divided into two Republican-facing areas.
The final product will also displace Florida’s 10th Congressional District, based in the Orlando area, represented by Val Demings, a black Democrat who is now running for the U.S. Senate, east of the Whiter community.
DeSantis claims that these districts were racially fraudulent and suggests that they are unconstitutional.
Opponents of the approved map suggest it is likely to be a legal challenge because it reduces the number of places where blacks are from four to two. A state constitutional amendment approved by the electorate in 2010, known as fair areas, requires lawmakers to give minority communities the opportunity to “elect representatives of their choice.”
Several black members of the House of Florida staged a protest during the debate, forcing an informal break before Republicans resumed the process by ending the debate and holding back the vote during the protest.
“I am occupying the floors of the hall in Florida to ensure that blacks are not forgotten. We are here to stay, “said spokeswoman Angie Nixon during the protest. “We take the floor, we do good problems. Ron DeSantis is a bully, Ron DeSantis is not interested in blacks.”
The Republican-controlled State House and Senate initially sought to maintain the current level of black neighborhoods. The governor threatened to veto these proposals.
The House of Representatives and the Senate adopted their own card in March amid objections from the governor. DeSantis vetoed and called lawmakers back to Tallahassee for a special session to resolve the issue. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate then decided earlier this month to allow the governor to take over.
DeSantis’s raid on the redirection process, which is repeated once a decade, is unusual. None of his immediate predecessors was particularly involved in redistributing state borders. It was a surprise for Tallahassee, including Republicans, when the governor’s office presented a map in January for lawmakers to look at.
Republicans currently have a 16-11 lead in the House of Representatives delegation. The state added the 28th district after the 2020 census.
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