A Florida judge has refused throw out Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 newly adopted congressional map, meaning the redraw \u2014 which eliminated as many as four Democratic seats \u2014 could be in place for the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n
In his eight-page decision<\/a>, Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes cited a bevy of reasons for siding against the three advocacy groups trying to trash the new map, including potential \u201cconfusion\u201d ahead of the looming elections, a lack of evidence the maps were improperly drawn, and implying that Florida\u2019s existing map, designed by DeSantis in 2022, would be illegal under a landmark new Supreme Court ruling.<\/p>\n He did not address whether the map means Florida\u2019s constitutional ban on partisan gerrymandering must be struck down. Hawkes said it\u2019s \u201cpremature\u201d to evaluate that argument.<\/p>\n \u201cThe primary is less than three months away, and the general less than six months. The public interest weighs more in favor of certainty than a haphazard judicial mandate of discarded maps,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n DeSantis in 2022 muscled through a congressional map that gave Republicans \u2014 already the dominant party in Florida \u2014 20 seats compared to Democrats\u2019 eight. But the 2026 map, drawn by one analyst in the governor\u2019s office, would bolster that lead to 24-4.<\/p>\n The central argument for the partisan switch is a primarily Black South Florida district, CD-20. The governor\u2019s office says that district\u2019s makeup is unconstitutional under a new Supreme Court ruling, which found that the federal Voting Rights Act alone isn\u2019t enough to justify race-based redistricting.<\/p>\n