Florida Rep. Al Lawson’s political fate remains unclear as Gov. Ron DeSantis takes the reins on drawing the Sunshine State’s redistricting lines, with some Republicans calling for the governor to make the new map as red as possible.
The Fifth Congressional District, which runs from Jacksonville to Tallahassee and is currently rated a D+12 seat by nonpartisan political handicapper Cook Political Report, could soon be unrecognizable. The Democratic stronghold represented by Lawson, 73, could soon be broken up.
Lawson, a Democratic state legislator from 1982 to 2010 and a House member since 2017, could soon face a much rougher reelection bid than expected. GOP operatives say his record on proxy voting is potentially a problem if he is drawn into a red-leaning or purple seat.
The Florida Democrat is one of three lawmakers who has solely voted via proxy this year, surpassing Rep. Kai Kahele, a first-term Hawaii Democrat who recently came under fire in his home state after the Honolulu Civil Beat reported on his absence from the Capitol. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, instituted proxy voting at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago and has extended it several times. But lawmakers are supposed to have a valid excuse not to show up for voting, such as being stricken with COVID-19 themselves or dealing with another illness.
The other two proxy voting-only House members, Democratic Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California and Albio Sires of New Jersey, are retiring after the 2022 elections, so their avoidance of the House floor is understandable if not necessarily justifiable. However, Lawson is running again.
Some GOP operatives have argued that it should incentivize DeSantis to break up the district. Florida-based GOP strategist Ford O’Connell took aim at the Republican-led state Legislature for initially pushing back on DeSantis’s proposed maps.
“Basically, the Legislature wants to reward a guy who isn’t doing his job for his own district and just will continue to let bygones be bygones. That just seems insane to me,” O’Connell said.
And House Republicans, who have vowed to do away with proxy voting if they take back the majority in November, despite the party also having utilized the tool, are expected to hit Democrats in swing seats on the subject leading up to November.
“You can bet Republicans will be reminding voters House Democrats refused to show up to work while collecting six-figure taxpayer-funded paychecks,” another senior GOP strategist said.
Lawson’s office did not respond to requests for comment about his proxy voting record.
Critics of carving up the district Lawson represents argue it could violate Florida’s Fair Districts amendment, which bars new redistricting maps from reducing minority communities’ voting power to elect the representative of their choice. Democrats were quick to slam the state Legislature’s decision to surrender power to DeSantis on redistricting.
“The Florida Legislature’s decision to hand redistricting over to Gov. Ron DeSantis is an unprecedented and shameless abdication of their responsibilities as an elected body,” DCCC spokesman Abel Iraola said in a statement.
“Large majorities of Floridians from across the political spectrum have made it clear they want to see fair maps. Based on his public comments, there is no doubt that any proposal from Gov. DeSantis would be a nonstarter and an attack on Black representation in Florida.”
FLORIDA LEGISLATURE SURRENDERS TO DESANTIS ON REDISTRICTING
Lawson slammed the move after the news broke earlier this week, arguing the Legislature “is caving to the intimidation of DeSantis and his desire to create additional Republican seats in Congress by eliminating minority-access districts.”
Lawson noted that the courts previously deemed his seat a fair district, arguing a dramatic change would be a partisan power grab.
“Previously, the Florida Supreme Court scolded the Florida Legislature for injecting partisan politics into the reapportionment process. Florida voters were hopeful that legislators would have learned their lesson. They did not,” he said in a statement on Monday. “Again, I am not surprised but disappointed with the Legislature’s inability to fulfill their constitutional duties as elected officials without political interference from DeSantis.”
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DeSantis dismissed allegations that a new district would disenfranchise minority voters at a press conference on Tuesday.
“We are not going to have a 200-mile gerrymander that divvies up people based on the color of their skin. That is wrong,” DeSantis said. “That is not the way we’ve governed in the state of Florida, and so that will obviously — that will be litigated.”
While Lawson may face a tougher district in his next race, one GOP lawmaker said not to count him out in a race for a red-leaning seat.
“Al Lawson has, for a long time, been pretty good at getting Republican votes throughout his whole career,” the lawmaker said.
The state Legislature is slated to meet for a special session on redistricting later this month.
