A Democratic candidate vying for an open U.S. House seat in Florida asked a federal court to require Gov. Ron DeSantis to schedule a special election.
Rev. Elvin Dowling, one of a number of candidates seeking to fill the 20th Congressional District seat that was vacated upon the death of Rep. Alcee Hastings on April 6, argued in a lawsuit filed Thursday that DeSantis is violating federal and state law for not yet scheduling an election to replace Hastings and that the district’s lack of representation in Congress amounts to voter suppression.
“The persistent vacancy being allowed by Governor DeSantis leaves the people of the Twentieth District without representation in this current legal and political environment in which the United States Congress is taking action on measures critical to Black Americans,” the lawsuit read.
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Dowling pointed to demographic data in Florida’s 20th District, the most recent of which showed that 53.8% of the district is black and 24% is Hispanic or Latino.
Outstanding federal legislation such as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the For the People Act made it important to fill the vacant seat, the suit argued. Both bills already passed the House of Representatives.
I just sued FL Gov. Ron DeSantis in federal court for violating the 1st, 14th and 15th amendment rights of 800,000 Black and Latino voters in FL-20 by failing to call a special election! DeSantis may be a bully, but I don’t scare easily! Lawsuit here: https://t.co/X7tIJlGKc7 pic.twitter.com/OTWJEfSzjV
— Elvin Dowling (@elvindowling) April 29, 2021
“Considering the ethnic make-up and voting history of the Twentieth District and the current political and legal environment, Gov. DeSantis’s unwarranted delay or de facto refusal to call a special election constitutes voter suppression in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Dowling said.
Other Florida Democrats have urged DeSantis to schedule the special election, pointing to the district’s lack of full representation in the House.
“At this critical moment in our nation’s recovery from COVID-19, after the passage of the American Rescue Plan and with more help still needed to heal our communities, it is crucial that our neighbors in Florida’s 20th District have Congressional representation,” a team of 10 Florida Democratic House members told DeSantis in an April 16 letter.
I’m joined by members of the Florida delegation in sending a letter to @GovRonDeSantis urging him to expeditiously call for a special election to fill the late Congressman Hastings’ seat, to ensure all our constituents in Florida are duly represented in The People’s House. pic.twitter.com/EvMhxrZDMG
— Rep. Lois Frankel (@RepLoisFrankel) April 16, 2021
Rep. Lois Frankel referred to potential political consequences in the absence of an election, citing Democrats’ narrow control of the House.
“Our concern is that there is such a close majority of Democrats in the House that any stalling, any less Democrats that are there — and stalling makes it more difficult for us to get what we think is a very commonsense agenda through,” she said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to DeSantis’s office for comment on the suit but did not immediately receive a response.
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Hastings, who died in April following a battle with pancreatic cancer, served as a Democratic member of the House for Florida’s 23rd Congressional District from 1993 to 2013 and then for Florida’s 20th Congressional District from 2013 until his death.
