Ron DeSantis makes DANGEROUS announcement

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a special legislative session to redraw the state's congressional map, aiming to increase Republican representation from 20 seats to 23, reducing Democratic seats from 8 to 5. This would result in a 23 Republican, 5 Democratic map, which the guest describes as a 'grotesque gerrymander' given Florida's competitive political landscape.

Ronda Santis is said that he is going to call a special session to rejerrymander the already very gerrymandered congressional map in that state... he passed a 20 Republican, eight Democratic seat map. ... Ronda Santis wants to squeeze another three Republican seats... you would go to a 23 Republican five Democratic seat map in Florida.

Florida's state constitution contains 'Fair Districts' amendments, approved by over 60% of voters, which explicitly prohibit considering party affiliation or protecting incumbents when drawing electoral maps. DeSantis's proposed map directly contravenes these voter-mandated provisions.

There is a provision in the state constitution of Florida that prohibits considering party in drawing maps, that prohibits uh uh taking into account incumbency protection in drawing maps. ... This was put in place by the voters of Florida. Like, they passed a ballot initiative in Florida that had to get 60% of the vote and did in order to prevent Ronda Santis from engaging in partisan gerrymandering.

The ability of Florida Republicans to bypass constitutional prohibitions stems from a dramatically changed state Supreme Court, now 'overwhelmingly dominated' by DeSantis appointees. This court has previously approved gerrymandered maps, making legal challenges difficult, though the guest believes the proposed map might be too extreme even for this court.

The composition of the state supreme court has changed dramatically. It is now a court overwhelmingly dominated if not entirely composed of people appointed by Rondais. And so they frankly... didn't do what they were supposed to do in the last go-around in approving these maps.

The guest advocates for every state run by Democrats to aggressively redistrict their maps, fighting 'fire with fire' against Republican gerrymandering. This strategy emphasizes creative approaches and the elimination of 'sacred cows' to ensure fair representation and counteract the power imbalance.

Every state run by Democrats should redistrict. Every one of them. And they should find a way. And you know, they need to be as creative as they need to be and there should be no sacred cows and and like that's what we need because that's what democracy calls for.