Ron DeSantis Dismantles a Black Congressional District on Purpose - Critics

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's attempts to gerrymander and dismantle a majority Black congressional district are getting more attention to Republican attempts to impede voting rights around the country after a judge ruled that Florida's Republican-drawn redistricting map was unconstitutional.

During the opening for one of the many federal lawsuits regarding the Florida redistricting case, lawyers challenging the Republican-drawn maps said that the dismantling of the majority-Black congressional district by Ron DeSantis was deliberate.

One of these lawsuits argued that the Republican-drawn map dismantled the district so that Democrats could not regain control of the US House. That district is a 200-mile area that connected a majority-black neighborhood in Jacksonville with the majority-black county of Gadsden. The map that included the district was vetoed by DeSantis and forced the legislature to draw a new one that did not include it.

"The governor pushed and pushed and pushed," said lawyer Greg Baker about DeSantis's actions. "He pressed his argument by sound bite bullying." This resulted in the Republicans winning a narrow majority in the House and left Black voters in north Florida with only white representation in Washington.

This lawsuit was filed by Common Cause Florida, the Florida branch of the NAACP, and Fair Districts. They want the Republican-drawn map thrown out, according to the Associated Press.

During his opening argument, Baker told the three-judge panel that the Republican governor's goal was to dismantle the district then held by Democratic Rep. Al Lawson, who is Black. The district he represented was then dispersed among more conservative and majority-white districts which were won by White Republicans. This resulted in Florida not having any Black representative for the first time in 30 years.

Ron DeSantis Targeted Black Voters

The Guardian reported that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tried to dilute Black political power in Florida and weaken Democrats through gerrymandering congressional districts.

In addition to gerrymandering, DeSantis also gutted the biggest voting rights victory in recent history, which a majority of Florida voters supported. This would have allowed people with a felony conviction to vote in Florida.

Republican Gerrymandering Gets More Scrutiny

The Republican party's attempts to hamper Black voters are not exclusive to Florida either. On the very same day as the opening to the Florida lawsuit, the Supreme Court rejected Alabama's attempt to avoid creating a second majority-Black congressional district and avoid possibly getting another Democrat into the US House of Representatives.

The state, which has one of the highest populations of African Americans at 27%, might get a second Black-majority district thanks to a new congressional map, which Alabama Republicans tried to stop. However, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision and ordered the state to redraw its seven-seat congressional map to include a second majority-Black district, according to CNN.

This could have some massive implications on the national level as Alabama currently has six Republicans and one Democrat representing the state at the House. With the redrawn district, one Republican House seat might get flipped blue.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: DeSantis' redistricting map in Florida is unconstitutional and must be redrawn, judge says - 10 Tampa Bay