WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Elias Law Group attorneys, in partnership with the National Redistricting Foundation, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Equal Ground Education Fund and 18 Florida voters to challenge the State’s newly enacted 2026 congressional map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander in violation of the Florida Constitution’s Fair Districts Amendment.
Passed just two days after Governor Ron DeSantis first revealed his proposed map to Fox News, the 2026 map is one of the most extreme partisan gerrymanders ever recorded. Under this new map, Republicans expect to win 24 of Florida’s 28 congressional districts, meaning that even if Republicans receive 55% of the statewide vote as they have in recent elections, they would carry roughly 86% of the state’s congressional seats.
By well-established statistical measures, this new map would have one of the largest pro-Republican skews ever recorded. It is a more egregious partisan gerrymander than both the 2012 plan the Florida Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional and the 2002 plan that prompted Florida voters to adopt the Fair Districts Amendment in the first place.
In 2010, Florida voters adopted the Fair Districts Amendment by a margin of 62.9% to 37.1%, expressly prohibiting any congressional map “drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.” Under questioning before the Florida Legislature, the Governor’s map drawer admitted he developed the plan using partisan data.
“Nearly two-thirds of Floridians sent a clear message when they voted to add a ban on partisan gerrymandering into their state Constitution in 2010,” said Elias Law Group Partner Abha Khanna. “With this new map, Governor DeSantis and Republican legislators have shown how much disdain they have for the millions of Floridians who voted for the Fair Districts Amendment. This map was drawn in secret using partisan data, ushered through the legislature by operatives with clear partisan goals, and then released to Fox News with red and blue color-coding, all to appease President Trump after he started a nationwide redistricting war for partisan gain. The question is not whether this map is a partisan gerrymander, because it is. The question is why Governor DeSantis and Florida Republicans think they can blatantly ignore the Florida Constitution and the instructions of their own voters.”
The complaint asks the court to declare the 2026 Plan unconstitutional, enjoin its use in any congressional election, and order the use of the existing plan for the 2026 elections.
Read the full complaint here.
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