Florida’s new electoral map, one of the most contested in the United States, will come into force for the next midterm elections in November. This map drawn by the conservative Governor Ron DeSantis gives pride of place to the Republicans by reducing the seats of the Democrats and in particular those of African-Americans. Challenged in court by civil rights groups, it had been deemed unconstitutional at first instance, but the Florida Supreme Court refused this Thursday, June 2 to block it.
With our correspondent in Miami, David Thomson
When voting for this new electoral map by the Florida Parliament in April, the African-American elected officials had started a sit-in in the middle of the hemicycle, denouncing in heart an attack by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis against the black vote. But that in vain.
It must be said that with its electoral redistricting, the seats of two elected African-Americans in the House of Representatives in Washington risk purely and simply disappearing. And with them, 30 years of efforts for better political representation of minorities in Florida.
The Fifth District, for example, has so far been made up mostly of black voters from the towns of Talahassee and Jaksonville. Now it brings together voters who voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in the last election. Its Democratic representative, the African-American Al Lawson, re-elected since 1993, is therefore preparing to put an end to his career after the mid-term elections.
And he is not the only one: with this new electoral map, Florida should send 20 elected Republicans to Washington in November against 16 currently, and thus help the conservatives regain a majority in the House of Representatives.