Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to redraw Florida’s congressional map next week is designed to benefit Donald Trump and “burnish” his own credentials with his “rightwing base” in case he decides to make another bid for the White House.

“Florida Republicans are preparing to redraw their already gerrymandered map. Let me make that clear: They want to put a gerrymander on top of a gerrymander and potentially steal up to five additional seats in the midterms this fall,” Holder said Monday night in a Zoom conference call organized by Equal Ground Florida.

Holder chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, an organization he created with help from top Democratic Party officials in 2017 shortly after he ended his tenure as Attorney General in Barack Obama’s presidential administration.

His comment about another “gerrymander” is a reference to the 2022 congressional redistricting map that DeSantis’ office drew up to remove a seat in North Florida where Black voters had made up nearly half of the eligible voting population.

A coalition of voting rights groups challenged that map, saying it violated Florida’s Fair Districts Amendments, a constitutional ban on the diminishment of minority voting power. However, the Florida Supreme Court upheld that map as constitutional last summer.

Holder contended that DeSantis had “stacked” the court with justices in his own image and has sought to use it as cover to push through some of the most aggressive gerrymanders in the country.

“These are maps designed to dilute the voting power of Black Floridians. It’s a blatant power grab. It’s a preview of what he’s prepared to do again right now,” he said.

The congressional map is being written by the Governor’s Office
The Florida Legislature is scheduled to return to Tallahassee on Tuesday to discuss and vote on a new congressional redistricting map but, as of now, neither the House nor the Senate has begun working. According to a memo written by Senate President Ben Albritton last week, the Legislature is prepared to concede that power to DeSantis.

“It is our expectation that pursuant to the proclamation issued by the Governor and consistent with the process undertaken during the 2022 Special Session on Congressional Reapportionment, a proposal will be transmitted from the Governor’s Office to the Senate for our consideration,” Albritton wrote. “I will share that information with Senators when it comes available.”

Holder said the Special Session “could shape American democracy for years to come,” and urged viewers on the call to rally in Tallahassee to tell the GOP-controlled Legislature that it should not draw such a map.

Some states have resisted redistricting
The unusual mid-decade redistricting arms race between red and blue states began last summer when Trump called on Texas Republicans to redraw their congressional map to enhance the GOP’s chances of gaining more members in Congress in November’s midterm election.

While other states have followed, some have resisted. Republicans in Indiana and Kansas lacked the votes in their respective legislatures, and the Democratic Senate President in Maryland resisted intense pressure from Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.

Holder noted that the Indiana voters were against it, and said Floridians should follow suit. “People organized, made noise, and made clear that there would be a political cost,” he said. “Pressure works, and the Legislature backed down. So, now it’s your turn.”

Holder urged viewers to tell their state representatives and senators that “drawing up a gerrymandered map to help Donald Trump is not acceptable and there’ll be consequences at the ballot box. Show up at legislative hearings. Pack those committee rooms. Make sure that they can’t ignore you.”

DeSantis has said for months that Florida’s congressional redistricting is not about adding to the 20 out of 28 congressional seats in Florida already controlled by Republicans. One of his arguments is that the state’s population has increased since the U.S. Census took place in 2020, which provided data for the 2022 redistricting effort.

However, the state will not have updated demographic information this time, something acknowledged in an opinion piece written by members of Florida TaxWatch on Tuesday.

“Unlike apportionment [of seats among the states], redistricting is within the state’s control, and policymakers should work in good faith to provide fair representation to all Floridians,” they write. “The shortcomings of existing census data, however, will be hard to overcome.”

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Reporting by Mitch Perry. Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

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