BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— Under a new redistricting plan signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday, April 22, Clay County is in a reconstituted congressional District 4 that also covers all of Nassau County and the westside of Duval.
Previously the area was in District 3, which it shared with all of Bradford, Union and Alachua counties, in addition to the northern half of Marion.
Kat Cammack, an Alachua County resident, will be seeking reelection in District 3. There is no current member of congress residing in the new District 4.
Clay County will have an outsized influence on the new Republican-majority district, with 44% of the district’s GOP voters residing in Clay County. Duval will be home to 35% of the district’s Republicans and Nassau County will have 21%
President Trump won the district by over six points in 2020.
Two Republicans have said they are considering a campaign run in District 4. One is former Fernandina Beach mayor and current Nassau County State Senator Aaron Bean. The other is Jacksonville City Councilman and K-9s for Warriors CEO Rory Diamond.
FloridaPolitics.com reported that Bean is lining up support from former Sen. Rob Bradley of Fleming Island and future Florida House Speaker Sam Garrison of Orange Park.
The new District 4 replaces the minority-access District 5, currently held by Al Lawson.
One day after DeSantis signed the redistricting plan into law, the League of Women Voters, Black Voters Matter, Florida Rising and Equal Ground Florida filed suit in Leon County, alleging the plan violates Florida’s Fair District’s constitutional amendment.
In 2015, a court discarded the redistricting plan passed by the legislature and replaced it with maps drawn by Common Cause and the League of Women Voters which had sued the state. Like the litigation filed last week, the two groups said the redistricting plan violated the Fair Districts Amendment.
