With qualification week just days away, groups challenging Florida’s congressional map are making one last request to halt the process.
The Equal Ground Education Fund and other plaintiffs petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to reverse a Leon County judge’s decision denying a request for an injunction. The First District Court of Appeals declined to reverse Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes’ decision, and the state’s high court is the last set of jurists with the power to demand an injunction on the map.
With ongoing questions about whether Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office broke Florida’s ban on partisan gerrymandering, plaintiffs argue that a map signed only last month should not be used in the 2026 Midterms. They are asking for a quick decision since the candidate qualification starts at noon on Monday.
“The public interest overwhelmingly favors enjoining the 2026 Plan and ordering upcoming elections to occur under the 2022 Plan,” reads a petition to the Florida Supreme Court.
Ironically, that map was also created by DeSantis’ office, but the Governor now says it is unconstitutional. He points to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that bans the use of race as a primary factor in drawing districts.
DeSantis has said that the recent Louisiana v. Callais decision, which has led Southern states to review their political boundaries, has made it harder to justify majority-minority districts. Although the decision came after his office drew the map in May, it anticipated calls to eliminate Florida’s 20th Congressional District, which is a majority-Black seat.
However, the senior analyst who created the map admitted to the Florida Senate that he used partisan data. The new map reduces the number of Florida Congressional Districts where most voters supported Democrat Kamala Harris for President in 2024 from eight to four. It also creates 24 districts where most voters chose Donald Trump that year.
Although candidate qualification ends at noon on June 12, plaintiffs argue that this deadline should not prevent the court from addressing concerns that the map may violate the law.
“The fact that qualifying is approaching does not make a remedy impossible; it underscores the need for prompt action,” the petition reads. “And if this Petition is resolved swiftly, modification of the qualifying period would not be necessary.”
Attorneys for the voting groups point out that candidates have already been allowed to qualify by petition with signatures from voters anywhere in Florida.
