Amid protests from Black lawmakers, and after shutting down the legislative chamber for a time, Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives passed a heavily gerrymandered congressional map proposed by the governor.
The map will now return to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to be signed into law, likely turning the current 16-11 Republican-Democratic split in Florida’s congressional delegation into a lopsided 20-8 Republican majority.
The map also eliminates a plurality Black district along Florida’s northern border with Georgia, and makes more conservative another the district, currently represented by Rep. Val Demings (D), in the Orlando area.
A little before noon, NBC News and WFSU News reported, Black lawmakers staged a protest in the center of the legislative chambers, chanting “stop the Black attack!” and wearing t-shirts with the same phrase.
The protesting lawmakers demanded that Republicans work with them to produce a map that preserved Florida’s Black congressional representation. (The legislature previously passed congressional maps that did just that, and they were vetoed by DeSantis, who called Rep. Al Lawson’s (D) district, which was drawn by the state’s Supreme Court in 2015, a “racial gerrymander.”)
House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R) attempted to stop the protest, ruling the lawmakers out of order, then gaveled the session into recess. The protests, including a prayer led by Rep. Dotie Joseph (D), continued:
One Republican representative referred to the protest as an “insurrection.” Members of the media were asked to leave the chamber’s public gallery as the protest continued, video from Politico’s Matt Dixon showed:
The House’s Republican majority subsequently reconvened. As state Reps. Angie Nixon (D) and Travaris McCurdy (D) chanted “stop the Black attack!” and “stand up, fight back!” the legislature passed the gerrymandered map, prompting applause from Republicans:
Probably too close to the election to fix the problem.
The courts will do nothing, even if given the chance.
This is going to make keeping the Dem control of the House a hell of a lot more difficult, which is just what the GQP want.
Cowards… the goobers are afraid of an honest fair election where every vote is counted because they might lose.
Andrew Gillum won 10 of these districts in 2018.
Trump won 6 of them with less than 53% of the 2020 vote.
Don’t throw me in that briar patch, Br’er Ron.
It’s roll-up-your-sleeves time. And if it does not animate us, it would surprise me a great deal. I have always said that we should have taken more advantage of the Second Reconstruction. It put in place things which helped everyone.
Ryan Sawyers
4 7 m ·
What’s fun about this Disney World stuff is that Republicans are going to have to say “gay” to their kids when they explain why they can’t go to Disney World.