Here’s something that should make your blood boil. In 2010, the people of Florida — by a massive majority — passed the Fair Districts Amendments to their state constitution. These amendments explicitly banned partisan gerrymandering. The language is clear: maps cannot be drawn to favor a political party. The voters put it in the constitution because they wanted it to stick.
Ron DeSantis doesn’t care what the voters put in the constitution.
In 2022, he vetoed the Republican legislature’s own map — which had preserved existing districts — called a special session, submitted his own map, and demanded lawmakers accept it. The map created four new Republican-leaning seats. A state judge ruled the map unconstitutional. DeSantis appealed. His hand-picked Florida Supreme Court — five of the seven justices appointed by DeSantis himself — overruled the judge and blessed the gerrymander.
“A Harvard constitutional law professor called the map ‘flagrantly unconstitutional under the Fair Districts Amendments.’ DeSantis called it fine. His court agreed with DeSantis.”
The result: Republicans went from holding 16 of Florida’s 28 congressional seats to 20. Four more seats. From one man drawing a map that a court said was illegal. And the most infuriating part? He erased a North Florida congressional district where Black voters had consistently elected their candidate of choice for three decades. Gone. One stroke of the pen. Because he could.
This week — this week, as of this writing — DeSantis announced he’s doing it again. A new gerrymander aimed at flipping four more Democratic seats before the 2026 midterms. The Florida legislature passed it. Republicans who voted against it were told they were betraying the party. A Republican state senator said she “just can’t do it” because the legal theory the map rested on had never even been tested in court. She voted no. The map passed anyway.
The Fair Districts Amendments are still in the Florida Constitution. No court has struck them down. DeSantis has simply decided they don’t apply to him. He told reporters that the Supreme Court’s recent ruling assured him the courts wouldn’t enforce the standards. Not that they were struck down. Not that they don’t apply. Just that he believes no one will stop him. And so far, he’s been right.
This is what authoritarianism looks like in practice. Not tanks in the street. Just a governor who looks at a law his own citizens passed and says “doesn’t apply to me” — and then dares someone to stop him. Florida voters banned this. Ron DeSantis did it anyway. Twice. If that doesn’t make you want to vote, donate, organize, and scream — I don’t know what will.
The legal challenges are coming. But every day this map stands, it shapes who gets elected, who holds power, and whose votes actually count in Florida. This is the issue. Not the drag shows. Not the books. This — the deliberate, systematic, unconstitutional dismantling of fair representation — is how they hold power. And they’re doing it right in front of you.