NRF-Supported Plaintiffs File Lawsuit Against Florida’s Mid-Decade Gerrymander

Washington, D.C. – Today, individual voter-plaintiffs supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) and the Equal Ground Education Fund initiated a legal challenge against the newly enacted congressional gerrymander in the Circuit Court of Leon County, asking the court to block the new gerrymander from being used in the upcoming midterm elections and strike it down as a violation of the Fair Districts Amendments to the Florida Constitution. The NRF is directing litigation and providing financial support on behalf of the Equal Ground plaintiffs in this case. The full complaint in the case, Equal Ground Education Fund v. Byrd, can be viewed here.

Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF), issued the following statement: 

“Florida’s mid-decade gerrymander is a blatant violation of the state’s constitution. This map is a gerrymander on top of an already egregious gerrymander that cracks apart numerous districts in nonsensical ways with the intent to favor one party over another. Given the clear violations of state law, this should be a clear-cut case, and all Floridians should see justice for this blatant attempt to reduce their rightful voting power even more than before.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

In July 2025, public reports indicated that the Trump Administration was pushing Governor DeSantis to enact a mid-decade gerrymander that would create more seats for Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. In January 2026, Governor DeSantis issued a proclamation calling for a special session in the Florida Legislature to draw a new congressional map. Despite overwhelming public opposition to mid-decade redistricting, in April 2026,  the Florida Legislature passed a new congressional gerrymander, which Governor DeSantis signed into law in May 2026.

Immediately after the enactment of the new gerrymander, the NRF-supported plaintiffs filed their lawsuit in state court, arguing that the map violates Article III, Section 20 of the Florida Constitution—also known as the Fair Districts Amendments (FDAs), which protect against gerrymandering in several ways. Among other things, the FDAs prohibit partisan intent against individual districts and the map as a whole, and they provide standards to guard against gerrymandering, including a compactness requirement and a requirement to use existing political and geographical boundaries. 

The NRF-supported plaintiffs argue that Florida’s new gerrymander violates the FDAs in several ways, including 1) by being drawn with partisan intent to favor the Republican Party and disfavor the Democratic Party, and with the intent to disfavor Democratic incumbents, 2) by failing to meet the compactness requirement in several congressional districts, and 3) by failing to utilize or respect existing political and geographic boundaries in numerous congressional districts. The full complaint is available here. 

To learn more about the NRF’s work, click here. 

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