Perhaps nowhere in the country was the timing of the Supreme Court decision more dramatic than in Florida, where just as the ruling was announced, state lawmakers were debating an aggressive new congressional map that could give Republicans up to four additional seats.
In the State House, Democrats called for a two-hour break to digest the decision. Republicans disagreed and raced to pass the map. In the State Senate, the Republican Senate president briefly paused the proceedings to give lawmakers a little time to read the court decision.
The proposed map was drawn by a top aide to Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. The governor argued for months that the court would reject Louisiana’s voting map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. When the court appeared to do just that on Wednesday, Mr. DeSantis wrote on social media that his new districts would correct similar “legal infirmities.”
“Called this one months ago,” he wrote on X.
The map would eliminate as many as four Democratic-held districts in the Orlando, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale areas. The Orlando district, held by Congressman Darren Soto, is heavily Puerto Rican.
Democrats in Tallahassee said after quickly reading the Supreme Court decision that they saw one “silver lining,” said State Representative Fentrice Driskell of Tampa, the Democratic minority leader.
“Race can still be used as a compelling factor” in drawing districts, she told reporters after the House vote, though she acknowledged that the court had significantly narrowed the impact of the federal Voting Rights Act.
Patricia Mazzei is the lead reporter for The Times in Miami, covering Florida and Puerto Rico.
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