A Florida Democrat who lost his House seat after a Republican-gerrymandered map erased his Congressional district could return to Washington under an agreement between a voting rights group led by former Attorney General Eric Holder and the state, Politico reports.
The gerrymandered map led to the GOP picking up four House seats, but it was widely viewed as being unconstitutional due to the way it intentionally reduced the political power of specific groups like Democrats and minorities in Florida. One of those newly-unrecognizable districts was Al Lawson’s 5th Congressional seat.
The agreement between the National Redistricting Foundation and the state of Florida acknowledges that “none of the enacted districts in North Florida are districts in which Black voters have the ability to elect their preferred candidates.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis justified the radical Congressional map in 2021 by claiming racism, saying the districts were previously drawn to benefit people based on their race.
The suit does not immediately order a new district map, nor does it stop the multitude of lawsuits–including the led by the Holder group regarding Lawson’s district–Florida is facing because of this and at least three other districts, but it puts on the record that the state acknowledges its Congressional lines were drawn with bigotry in mind.