{"id":285416,"date":"2026-05-26T23:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285416\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:54:08","slug":"desantis-appointed-judge-allows-florida-to-use-gop-gerrymander-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285416\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis-appointed judge allows Florida to use GOP gerrymander in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

A judge appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has cleared the way for Florida to use its new congressional map \u2014 drawn by DeSantis\u2019 office \u2014 in the 2026 midterm elections, despite what plaintiffs called \u201cstaggering\u201d evidence<\/a> that it violates the state\u2019s voter-approved ban on partisan gerrymandering.<\/p>\n

In his order, Judge Joshua Hawkes of Florida\u2019s Second Circuit Court concluded that, pulled between the state\u2019s ban on partisan gerrymanders and the U.S. Constitution\u2019s Equal Protection guarantees, \u201cit seems clear that the potential partisan intent in the 2026 map is the lesser of the two evils.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pro-voting plaintiffs in the case have appealed\u00a0the decision to the state court of appeals.<\/p>\n

The ruling is a victory in President Donald Trump\u2019s push for GOP-controlled states to redraw their maps to favor Republicans. And it emphasizes the uneven playing field on which national Democrats and Republicans are competing as Trump pressures GOP-controlled states to help him rig the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n

Democrats have moved to respond to aggressive GOP redistricting in kind, but have faced an uphill battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month, Virginia voters approved Democrats\u2019 plan to redraw the state congressional map and cancel out Republicans\u2019 gerrymandered gains elsewhere, only to have the Virginia Supreme Court throw it out on a technicality.<\/p>\n

In Florida, the GOP did not need voter approval to redistrict and the court has now opened the door for Republicans to potentially pick up four House seats for the GOP.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hawkes held the temporary injunction hearing in three consolidated challenges<\/a>* to the Florida map. Ultimately, he determined that there was not enough evidence of partisan intent because the GOP\u2019s mapmaker had been asked so few questions in the public hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of questions [the map drawer] received fell well short of what one would expect in an adversarial cross-examination from a skilled advocate,\u201d Hawkes wrote.<\/p>\n

But that intent was hardly a secret in court.<\/p>\n

During the proceedings, mapmaker Jason Poreda, a senior analyst in DeSantis\u2019 administration, admitted to relying on partisan data<\/a> while drawing the new district lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Christina Ford, an attorney with the Elias Law Group representing a group of plaintiffs, told the court that Poreda\u2019s comments in a legislative committee meeting clearly indicated the map was drawn as a partisan gerrymander.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn partisan intent: The evidence here is staggering, and defendants barely attempt to rebut it,\u201d Ford said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She added that Poreda also admitted he did not draw the map in compliance with the Fair Districts Amendment, the voter-approved measure that established the state gerrymandering ban.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs also argued DeSantis made the partisan intent of his map obvious: His office released the plan to Fox News before sending it to Florida lawmakers, and the map blatantly color-coded the districts in red and blue.<\/p>\n

In court filings and during the hearing, defendants ignored plaintiffs\u2019 partisan gerrymandering claims, instead framing the new map as an effort to eliminate race-based redistricting in response to the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s recent ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

*The Elias Law Group (ELG) is representing plaintiffs in the case. ELG Firm Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has cleared the way for Florida to use its new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-285416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}