Trial involving Tampa Bay voters accusing Florida Senate leaders of racial gerrymandering ends Thursday

Challenge to Tampa Bay Senate seat revisits how it was created in 2022 • Florida Phoenix

The federal courthouse in Tampa on June 11, 2025. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)Day Three of the federal lawsuit alleging that a Tampa Bay area state Senate district was racially gerrymandered focused in part on how that district was created in 2022. The suit, filed by the ACLU of Florida and the Civil Rights & Racial Justice Clinic at New York University on behalf of three residents of Tampa and St. Petersburg, alleges the Legislature p…

Trial involving Tampa Bay voters accusing Florida Senate leaders of racial gerrymandering ends Thursday

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Wednesday marked day three of a federal trial involving a panel of three judges listening to arguments about the way Florida Senate District 16 was drawn. This district includes a portion of south St. Petersburg, along with Tampa, Temple Terrace, and down to Ruskin. North Hillsborough resident and lead plaintiff Keto Nord Hodges testified in court about the district’s lines. “The Florida Senate unconstitutionally packed in B…