DDHQ Morning News Spotlight: A Blow to the DeSantis Redistricting Plan

Welcome to this morning’s Decision Desk HQ Morning News Spotlight on Elections Daily as part of the Decision Desk HQ News Network.

Morning Headlines

• A judge in Leon County, Florida has blocked the congressional map drawn by Governor Ron DeSantis from being used in this year’s election. The ruling is focused on the state’s majority Black 5th Congressional District, which would be split up between four other districts under the new plan. The ruling is certain to be appealed, further prolonging Florida’s redistricting process just months before their primary.
• The National Republican Senatorial Committee is reserving $53 million in ad spending in seven crucial battleground states with Senate races this year. The ads would target Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced recently that they are reserving $33 million in ad spending which matches what the NRSC had spent in 2020.
• A New York State judge has released former President Trump from a contempt order that had been imposing a $10,000 daily fine on him for the past two weeks. As a condition of lifting the order, the judge said the former President must pay the full amount of fines that have accrued by May 20, or face reinstatement of the contempt order including the $10,000 daily fine that would be retroactively applied. The contempt order was originally instated for failing to comply with a subpoena issued by the state’s attorney general requesting documents from Trump and his organization.
• Emails obtained by the Colorado Ethics Institute from John Eastman, who had served as former President Trump’s lawyer following the 2020 election, show him communicating with Pennsylvania state lawmakers on how they could overturn the state’s election results. He suggests that the state should “simply” recount the state’s election results and exclude absentee ballots. Eastman’s emails have been a subject of scrutiny in the Jan. 6 House Select Committee, which has tried to secure thousands of his correspondences during the time following the election.
• The New York Senate Elections Committee voted yesterday to advance the John Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York out of committee. A key provision in the bill is that local jurisdictions with a history of racially motivated voter suppression would need approval from the state before making changes to their election administration. New York City would be one of the jurisdictions to fall into this category. The bill is expected to go before the full state Senate next week for a floor vote.
• A judge in Steuben County, New York has upheld the new state Assembly map passed by the legislature. The ruling allows the state to proceed with its regularly scheduled elections for the state Assembly in June. The State Court of Appeals ruled last month that New York’s congressional and state senate maps were unconstitutional and need to be redrawn by May 20. Elections for those offices have been moved to August.
• ICYMI: Nick Field recapped Tuesday’s primaries in Nebraska and West Virginia, and looks ahead to next Tuesday’s contests in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Idaho, and Oregon.

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