CNN Profiles GOP Gerrymandering In Florida, But Not Democratic Gerrymandering in New York, Illinois

CNN profiled, on Wednesday, gerrymandering being done by the Republican Party in the Red state of Florida, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), yet gave a pass to Democratic Party gerrymandering in Blue states including Illinois and New York.

During Inside Politics, anchor John King said that DeSantis took “a map drawn by the Florida Republicans in the legislature and saying ‘Not bad, but I can do even better,’ meaning, ‘I can punish the Democrats even more.’”

“If you look at the new map Florida is gaining a seat, 16 Republicans now. Those who look at the DeSantis map think that’s how’s it’s going to end up, somewhere around there, 20, maybe even 21, and the Democrats would lose four, so they would go to seven, maybe eight,” said King. “That’s fairly aggressive. And again, it gets you a lot of attention in your state and more.”

Panelist Abby Phillip concurred with King’s assessment.

Two elements to this. One, that is a pretty significant gain for Republicans not just in that state but in the overall context of redistricting in the country where Democrats had actually come out of that process doing okay because a lot of the congressional maps were struck down by courts, they were able to get maps that they viewed as more fair. This would basically wipe that out completely, according to a lot of experts.

But secondly, he’s doing it by eliminating a lot of districts that are represented by Black lawmakers and so part of the explicit part of this is for DeSantis to say he’s calling some of these districts racially gerrymandered, we’re going to make it race neutral, he’s eliminating a lot of districts represented by plurality of Black voters. That’s participate of the culture war, too.

But where’s the outrage over the gerrymandering in the Blue states of Illinois and New York?

The new Illinois congressional map, enacted in November 2021, added two Democratic-leaning districts and eliminated two Republican-leaning districts.

The new New York congressional map, enacted in February, added three Democratic-leaning seats and removed three Republican-leaning districts.

Both the GOP and Democratic Party are guilty of gerrymandering. King and his panel should have held both parties accountable.

Watch above, via CNN.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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