Florida congressional redistricting map serves monumental injustice

It wasn’t just the way GOP lawmakers colluded to pass a congressional redistricting map that defies the Florida Constitution, drawing lines clearly meant to benefit Republicans over any other consideration.

It wasn’t just the pathetic decision to grovel to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ whim in a way they never have before.

It wasn’t just the decision to eradicate districts intended to give Black voters a shot at electing candidates who look like them.

It was their total indifference.

DeSantis, House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson knew they were unraveling decades of progress toward fairer and more representative elections. They knew, but they don’t care. They knew this legislation, which favors Republicans in 20 of the state’s 28 congressional districts, fails the standard set by the Fair Districts amendments voters passed in 2010.

They didn’t care about that, either.

And when House Democrats erupted in furious protest Thursday, Sprowls betrayed not a flicker of compassion or comprehension. Instead, with brutal efficiency, he shoved two more despicable bills through with no debate.

Serving the wrong master

The map lawmakers approved was not their first attempt. They sent DeSantis a redistricting plan in March that eliminated one of Florida’s four designated majority-minority districts, drawn with enough Black voters to make a Black candidate’s election likely. It wasn’t enough for DeSantis, who demanded the elimination of a second majority-minority district in Central Florida.

The governor’s involvement was highly unusual. Under Florida law, legislators draw the districts, with the governor approving or vetoing the final map. When DeSantis sent lawmakers a map drawn to his specifications, he flipped the script. For him, it’s not unusual: He has repeatedly transformed senators and House members into legislative lapdogs.

Before the House voted, Sprowls and the Democrats agreed to a structured debate. Dissenters were limited to a few minutes each. Black lawmakers made their anguish known, telling stories of parents and grandparents turned away from the polls.

They described the urgency and awe they felt when walking with civil rights leaders such as John Lewis, Shirley Chisholm and Carrie Meek. They tried to get Republicans to know how it feels to watch hard-won victories picked apart and rights eroded.

Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton, read word for word the oath legislators take to “support, protect and defend” the state and U.S. constitutions, including the Fair Districts anti-gerrymandering amendments in Florida and the federal Voting Rights Act.

“Your failure to uphold your oath and stand up to the bully-in-chief is shameful,” Skidmore told the House. “Straighten your spine and vote no.”

But the House voted 70 to 38 for DeSantis’ race-based remapping of congressional lines that would put 20 of 28 seats, or 71% of them, in Republican control.

That’s grotesquely wrong in a state where Republicans comprise 36% of voters and Democrats make up 35%, and where former President Trump got 51% of the vote in 2020.

When Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, D-Gainesville, went over her allotted time, her microphone was cut off. The floor erupted into a passionate protest, with lawmakers staging a sit-in at the front of the House chamber and singing hymns.

Sprowls called a brief recess, but when lawmakers reconvened and the chanting resumed, he seized the opportunity to put the redistricting plan (SB 2C) to a rapid vote. It passed 68-38. Next up were two bills (SB 4C, SB 6C) to punish Disney for its opposition to a parental-rights bill that overtly targets LGBTQ+ students and teachers. Both passed by similar margins.

A calculated indifference

Here’s the worst part of what’s happening in Florida: DeSantis, Sprowls, Simpson and the lawmakers who fall in line behind them may not harbor hatred for racial or sexual minorities. But — as U.S. District Judge Mark Walker pointed out in a blockbuster ruling three weeks ago — Republicans have learned that prejudice can be harnessed for their political benefit. They wield bigotry like a useful, all-purpose tool. They have marginalized vulnerable students struggling with their sexuality for political gain. They have banned classroom discussions of racism’s modern realities, because it was advantageous to their agenda.

And they shrug off any reproach. It’s just politics. That’s why they don’t comprehend the havoc they wreak.

Fair representation is not just about politics. It’s about personhood. It’s wrong to make laws that make people afraid to speak out about who they are. It’s wrong to draw lines on a map that make some Florida voters invisible.

The state’s current leadership may not see that. But increasingly, Floridians do.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.