Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bucked his party Tuesday, vetoing a congressional map sent to him by the Republican-led Legislature that he claimed violated the 14th Amendment.
The map submitted by both chambers of the Legislature, passed in defiance of the governor’s threat to veto it, preserved a racially gerrymandered district in violation of the Equal Protection Clause when dividing that district’s majority-black population among the neighboring districts would actually be a more aggressive move for the GOP, DeSantis argued.
“We have a responsibility to produce maps for our citizens that do not contain unconstitutional racial gerrymanders,” DeSantis said in a statement. “Today, I vetoed a map that violates the U.S. Constitution, but that does not absolve the Legislature from doing its job. I appreciate the Legislature’s willingness to work with me to pass a legally compliant map this Special Session.”
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The district, a plurality of which is comprised of black voters, is “not narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling state interest,” his general counsel argued in a memo accompanying the veto.
The Legislature could attempt to override the veto, but the map cleared the Florida Senate 24-15 and House of Representatives 67-47 largely along party lines earlier this month — short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. With an override unlikely, the Legislature will likely need to draw a new map to win the governor’s support, a Republican source told CNN.
During Florida’s redistricting negotiations, the governor took the rare step of presenting map options to the Legislature, including one that would edge Florida Republicans’ current 16-11 congressional seat advantage up to 20-8, according to Dave Wasserman, a national elections analyst for the Cook Political Report. Florida gained a seat in the most recent census.
By comparison, the map DeSantis vetoed would have likely given Republicans an 18-10 advantage, per Florida Politics. DeSantis vowed to veto that map when it began making its way through the Legislature.
I will veto the congressional reapportionment plan currently being debated by the House. DOA.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 4, 2022
In January, Florida’s Senate approved a map with a bipartisan 31-4 vote. But DeSantis fiercely opposed that map, and Republicans in the Legislature began making adjustments that upset Democrats. Their effort to appease DeSantis has also brought on a lawsuit from heavyweight Democratic lawyer Marc Elias seeking to challenge the Republican redistricting efforts in the state.
DeSantis called for a special legislative session when he issued the veto, and Florida’s Senate president and House speaker both agreed. Federal candidates are expected to file by June 17, and the state’s primary election is currently slated to take place in August.
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Florida is one of five states without legally binding congressional maps, alongside Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, and New Hampshire. About a dozen states that have maps in place are engaged in litigation over their congressional lines.
The Florida Legislature plans to hold a special session April 19-22 to draft a new map.
