Gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds maintains that the Supreme Court made the right decision in Louisiana v. Callais, the case influencing redistricting in Florida and across the South. He believes it corrected a law meant to fix a problem that no longer exists.

“There was a time when the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed, where Black Americans were systematically discriminated against by Democrats in the South of the United States of America. That’s a fact. That’s what happened. And so you needed the 1965 Voting Rights Act because of the systematic discrimination against Black Americans. But if you look at the last 30 years in America, there is no systematic discrimination. The court looked at that, looked at all the evidence, looked at all the information, and they ruled correctly that you do not need racial gerrymandering today,” the Congressman from Naples said on Sunday’s episode of “One Nation with Brian Kilmeade.”

Donalds notes that Legislatures and Redistricting Commissions can consider party identification, even when using a race-neutral approach.

“They did the exact right thing, and so now what you’re going to see is gerrymandering and redistricting along the lines that the court said is allowable around representation of people within their communities. And, yes, in some respects, it could be political depending on the state that you are in. But let’s be very clear, racial gerrymandering is illegal. It should be illegal. We shouldn’t set congressional boundaries based on race. We shouldn’t be setting anything in our country today based on race. It should be set based on merit. It should be based on ideas and innovation.”

Donalds has described the new Florida map as a response to redistricting in Democratic states that reduce Republican seats. He continues to be a strong supporter of the redistricting this year, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The post Byron Donalds says ‘systematic discrimination’ is in the past, and so too should be ‘racial gerrymandering’ appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..