Midterm Results Prove DeSantis’ District Maps Are Unfair to Latino and Black Voters, According to Civil Rights Groups

The organizations are plaintiffs that are currently suing Florida in circuit court over the redistricting process, claiming it was unfair to communities of people of color.

Civil rights organizations are pointing to the midterm election results to reiterate how the redistricting maps affected Hispanic and Black communities.

Equal Ground, Florida Rising, League of Women Voters Florida, and Black Voters Matter are currently suing Florida in circuit court over the redistricting process, claiming unfairness to communities of color. 

RELATED: Florida Dems: DeSantis’ Redistricting Maps ‘Shameful,’ ‘an Attack on Democracy’

“Tuesday’s midterm congressional elections were held under a congressional map that was already found to be blatantly unconstitutional by a state court judge under Florida’s Fair District Amendments,” the organizations said in a joint statement.

In early March, the Florida Legislature approved a redistricting map, which was later vetoed by DeSantis. The Republican governor then pressured them into passing his redistricting plan, which erased two of the state’s four districts with the largest populations of people of color. DeSantis’ maps were passed in a special session in April.

One of the main advocates of the Latino and LGBTQ communities, former representative Carlos G. Smith, who was the first gay Latino representative from Florida, wasn’t reelected for the first time in six years.

He was one of four Democratic US House members ousted during the midterm elections. The Orlando Democrat lost against the Republican candidate Susan Plasencia.

In the redistricting process, Smith was left in a district that included Seminole County. As a result, the former representative won the Orange County region he represented his first three terms, but lost in Seminole,  where he was running for the first time.

RELATED:Rep. Carlos G. Smith Votes Against Redistricting Map for Not Reflecting Latino Communities’ Growth

The same thing happened to Al Lawson, a Black Democrat who served in a district that included a number of Black communities from Tallahassee to Jacksonville, which were Democratic-leaning, but after redistricting, chose white Republicans.
Last week, federal courts allowed a case against Florida’s congressional map to move forward, but without DeSantis as a defendant.