TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Groups across the Bay Area joined a national day of protests Saturday opposing the redrawing of congressional maps in Florida and other states.

The national movement, main-staged in Montgomery, Alabama, is called “All Roads Lead to the South.”

Florida’s new congressional map, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, has been the subject of several lawsuits.

Protesters gathered outside Tampa City Hall and Largo Central Park, saying the redistricting efforts are dividing communities.

“It’s dividing people, and… it’s bad in the long term,” said Jesse Skipper, who came from St. Petersburg.

“We’re in the middle of a season, and they’re just going to change the rules, change the districts, do things as they want?” Stephen Finney in Largo said.

The latest redistricting push follows a request last year from President Donald Trump for Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps, as well as a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited how race can be used when drawing district lines under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The new congressional map signed by DeSantis last week could flip up to four Democratic-held U.S. House seats.

Democratic state Rep. Michele Rayner said the changes could weaken minority representation.

“It’s absolutely the representatives picking their people and the people not picking their representatives,” Rep. Rayner said. “Here’s the reality of the situation. If you did not have to cheat to win, you wouldn’t do this.”

DeSantis’ general counsel told state lawmakers in a memorandum in April that a 2025 Florida Supreme Court ruling found the state could not draw districts based primarily on race, and that parts of the voter-approved Fair Districts Amendment passed in 2010 could no longer be enforced.

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A Florida judge held a hearing in one of the related lawsuits on Friday. He said he will issue a written ruling, but the timing is unknown as of right now.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Judge to rule on Florida’s new map ahead of November election

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