Governor Ron DeSantis recently redrew the state’s congressional districts and eliminated two black-majority districts in north and central Florida, including the eastern portion of Congressman Al Lawson’s District 5 that used to consist of Baker and several other rural counties between Jacksonville and Tallahassee.
Baker County was placed inside the new boundaries of Congressional District 3, represented by Republican Kat Cammack, the youngest female Republican in Congress and third-youngest elected in 2020. Because terms in the U.S. House are two years, she’s up for re-election this year and again in 2024 should the new district lines survive the ongoing court challenge.
Rep. Commack’s Third Congressional District will lose Clay and Putnam counties in the shake-up but gain eight others, including Baker, in the once-a-decade redistricting process that follows the U.S. Census.
The governor initially rejected proposed maps from Florida lawmakers that would have largely meant no changes to the black-majority districts that he argued were racially gerrymandered.
The governor’s critics countered that the old districts ensured black voters could elect a candidate of their own choice in accordance with the state constitution as amended by more than 60 percent of Florida voters in 2010.
Regardless, state lawmakers passed Governor DeSantis’ proposed redistricting map during a special session last month in a move that represented an abdication of their constitutional duties as a co-equal branch of government.
Congressman Al Lawson views the new district boundaries as an attack on black voters in Florida designed to score political points with the Republican base.
“Once again, DeSantis is showing Florida voters that he is governing the state as a dictator,” said Rep. Lawson, a Tallahassee Democrat, in a recent press release. “[The governor] bullied the Florida Legislature into approving his Republican-leaning congressional map during special session. It is alarming that state legislatures cannot fulfill their constitutional duties without political meddling.”
He said the new map violates the federal Voting Rights Act as well as the state and federal constitutions.
The same day the governor signed the new congressional districts into law, the Florida League of Women Voters and other civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit to block the changes.
CNN reported that the lawsuit contends the new maps violate a 2010 “Fair Districts” state constitutional amendment requiring lawmakers to give minority communities an opportunity to “elect representatives of their choice.”
Rep. Cammack may soon become Baker County’s voice in the U.S. House.
“I’m thrilled to announce my bid for re-election in Florida’s Third Congressional District,” she said. “Representing North Central and Northeast Florida in Congress over the last two years has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime and I’m excited to continue serving Floridians during the 118th Congress, including more folks in eight counties new to Florida’s Third (CD3).”
Alachua, Bradford, Union and part of Marion counties should remain in CD3 while Baker, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy and Suwannee counties would be added and Clay and Putnam counties subtracted.
Florida is set to have the third-largest congressional delegation in the nation with 28 members.
Rep. Cammack has served on the House Agriculture Committee, House Select Committee on the Economy, and the House Homeland Security Committee, for which she’s served as the lead Republican on the Subcommittee for Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery.
“Over the last two years, we’ve worked hard to deliver results for our hardworking constituents, advocating for our farmers, ranchers and producers; standing against unconstitutional mandates; defending the Second Amendment and the right to life; fighting for border and national security; and supporting the American dream,” said the congresswoman via a recent press release. “We’re just getting started with the important progress we’ve made and I look forward to taking our country back with a Republican majority in the House this November.”
She’s raised more than $1.6 million in her re-election campaign.
Florida House Representative Chuck Brannan said he hopes the new district will give small rural counties comprising it more political power.
“We’re gonna be in a much more concise and have much more in common with our fellow constituents in those other counties than that gerrymandered districts, that we’ve been in for the last ten years or however many it’s been since it’s been finally settled last time. We certainly have more in common with those folks than we got with Jacksonville and Tallahassee,” said Rep. Brannan, according to a report from Kristin Chase at WCJB, the ABC affiliate in Gainesville.
“The map is expected to expand Republicans’ current 16-11 seat advantage in congressional districts to as many as 20 out of 28 districts – and possibly help Republicans flip control of the US House of Representatives this November,” was the summary from CNN.com.
