Approximately 150 protesters gathered outside the Florida Capitol Tuesday as the House of Representatives convened inside, chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, rigged maps have got to go.”
The gathering of protesters countered the Florida House’s quick floor session on the first day of a special session called to debate congressional redistricting. (The Senate convened later in the day.)
Genesis Robinson of Equal Ground pointed to the voter makeup of the state — 5.5 million registered Republicans of 13.4 million total voters, more than 3 million voters with no party affiliation, and about 4 million are registered Democrats.
“To give 85% of our seats to a party that doesn’t even have at least 50% of the vote in Florida is a problem. Where I come from that’s called cheating,” Robinson said.
“And let me be clear, the Fair Districts Amendments are not optional, they’re not suggestions, they are edicts by the voters of this state, telling our lawmakers how to draw our maps,” Robinson said, referencing the 2010 constitutional amendments approved by voters, each with more than 62% support.
Rev. Reginald Gundy, a Baptist pastor in Jacksonville, offering a comment he said would “probably shake up the world,” cast a curse on leaders pushing for redistricting, asking the crowd to join him in prayer.
Gundy said the U.S. Constitution “was never intended for us to be we the people, it was about old, white men who decided that they wanted to control America and everybody in it.”
“We come to the Florida Constitution, which says that we should have fair districts for people of minorities and then they turned around and they decided they didn’t want to listen to the people,” Gundy said.
“My power, even though I appreciate you being here and you organizing and doing what you need to do, my power does not come from you,” Gundy told the crowd, pointing a finger to the heavens.
“My power and my faith come from up there. So, I declare a curse. I’m a prophetic voice, I’m not a priest, I declare a curse on everybody in this legislative body, to include the governor and the president of the United States, until they repent of what they’re doing and start doing what’s right.”
His curse extended to “every generation that comes behind them until they do like David said, ‘Create in me a clean heart and renew in me a right spirit,’ and then you can go stand before God and stop claiming that you love God when you turn around and treat people the way you treat them with this partisan mess. …
“I claim the power of God from upstairs to come down here and change this mess that’s going on,” Gundy said.
“I know all legislators are not bad. But if you didn’t do anything wrong, you don’t have to worry about the curse,” he added.
Terri Kondos of the League of Women Voters criticized the process, particularly a lack of opportunity for public input. Gov. Ron DeSantis drew his new map in secret and sent it to the Legislature on Monday.
“This is not transparency. This is not public engagement. This is a process designed to be completed before the public can even engage,” Kondos said.
“The League of Women Voters believes that district maps should be drawn in the open with robust public voter participation at the appropriate time in a post-Census cycle. What is happening here fails every one of those tests,” Kondos said.
The special session is scheduled through the end of the week.
–Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
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