TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay’s new congressional map looks like a pinwheel, with districts shaped like vanes that carve through Black neighborhoods in the urban cores and fan out into the rural, white and Republican counties beyond.

East Tampa, with its historically Black neighborhoods, will share a representative with the outer reaches of Citrus County, more than 90 miles northwest. Much of St. Petersburg’s Black community will be in the same district as Arcadia and Fort Meade, 75 miles east into Florida’s rural heartland.

After a mid-cycle redistricting push to solidify Republican rule, Black voters in Tampa Bay find themselves splintered into five sprawling districts. The new map dilutes Black voting power, which leans Democratic, and threatens the region’s lone blue seat.

Florida is the latest in a string of states to reshape its electoral borders in favor of a political party. Though state staffers say they used partisan data, not race, to draw the map, local leaders say the redistricting comes at the expense of Black voters.

“It’s clear that what they’re doing is skewing or weakening the representation that should be in place,” said NAACP St. Petersburg branch President Esther Sanni. “It’s ignoring community boundaries. It’s being very intentional with ensuring that the strength of our voices is minimized.”

Black voters dispersed

The 14th Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold held by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, saw dramatic change.

Under the old map, the district covered the eastern half of St. Petersburg and much of Tampa. Its population was 17.7% Black. Now, its boundaries cut out East Tampa, parts of Ybor City and all of Pinellas County, including southern St. Petersburg.

The district lost more than 47,000 Black residents, whose share of the population fell to 11.5%, according to 2020 Census population data that states are required to use when redistricting.

District 13, a Pinellas County district that Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna carried by nearly 10 points in her most recent election, lost more than 6,000 Black residents. The redistricting makes it even redder.

Those Black residents will vote in the far-reaching 12th, 15th and 16th districts — all currently represented by Republicans.

East Tampa residents, for example, will vote in District 15, which was formerly centered around Temple Terrace, Plant City, the western half of Lakeland and the suburbs of northern Hillsborough and southern Pasco counties to Zephyrhills.

The new boundaries dip into Tampa’s core, stretch to Dade City, hook west into Brooksville and extend north to Pine Ridge in Citrus County. Now, 3,000 Black residents formerly a part of Castor’s heavily-blue district will be represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee, who intends to seek reelection under the newly drawn district.

A smaller chunk of Black Tampa residents will vote in District 12, which spans to western Pasco County and is currently represented by Republican Gus Bilirakis.

State Rep. Dianne Hart, D-Tampa, said voters worry their new representatives won’t adequately understand or advocate for their needs. Castor, Tampa’s longtime congressperson, “was aware of what’s happening in this district, understood the need for better education, better healthcare,” she said.

“We knew what she stood for, what she would fight for,” Hart said of Castor. “Now, we’ll have somebody who knows nothing about the district. How will they be able to help us? Will they help us? We just don’t know.”

Tampa Bay communities sliced again

In 2022, Florida’s last round of redistricting split St. Petersburg down the middle. It diluted the voting power of the state’s fifth-largest city, which is reliably Democratic.

The eastern half joined the 14th District, represented by Castor, concentrating blue votes under one congressional representative.

Even though St. Petersburg and Tampa are in different counties, Castor said the cities at least shared common interests. Both cities, for example, dealt with flooding and the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.

Now, St. Petersburg is sliced again — this time horizontally along 22nd Avenue North.

The new boundary for Florida’s 16th District runs northwest to include Redington Shores and south over the Sunshine Skyway bridge to Hardee, DeSoto and Polk counties. The redrawn map added 5,500 Black people to the solidly red district, currently represented by Republican Vern Buchanan, who is retiring this year.

Castor no longer represents any part of the Sunshine City.

“You have a gerrymander on top of a gerrymander,” she said.

Darryl Paulson, a professor emeritus of government at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, said Florida has a long legacy of discrimination against Black voters, including poll taxes and literacy tests. The latest redistricting effort, he said, is “a hoax to curtail the ability of African Americans to cast a fair ballot.”

The state’s new map was approved by lawmakers hours after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that severely limited a key tenet of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, intended to prohibit discriminatory voting practices. The court said Louisiana had conducted an illegal gerrymander by drawing congressional maps aimed to make it more likely a Black person could win a second seat in the state.

The ruling buoyed Florida’s redistricting effort. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office said the decision nullified Florida’s 2010 Fair Districts Amendment, which bans lawmakers from drawing maps that diminish the voting power of minority groups.

DeSantis has given a handful of reasons for the mid-cycle redistricting, including that it would “ensure that Florida’s congressional maps accurately reflect the population of our state.” His office has also said that Florida’s representation in Congress has “been distorted by considerations of race.”

No Republican lawmakers other than the bill’s sponsors in the House and Senate spoke in support of the new map when it was approved last month. Five voted against it.

DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to emails, a phone call and a text message seeking comment.

Of the Supreme Court ruling, Paulson said, “Unlike white (people), who can bond together and form communities of interest to draw white districts, Black people are now being told that they can’t bond together and create minority districts, even though they’ve been discriminated against for 350 years.”

Yvette Lewis, president of the Hillsborough branch of the NAACP, said, “When they drew the map, they knew exactly what they were doing. They’re telling us that we don’t have a voice, to just sit down and be quiet.”

‘Can’t tune out and turn off’

State Sen. Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg Democrat, gave an impassioned speech about the new map on the floor of the Legislature last month.

Since then, he said, he’s fielded requests from groups including local NAACP chapters, Faith in Florida and Sarasota’s Black Democratic caucus to speak to their members about the impacts of redrawn congressional maps ahead of the midterm elections this year.

“People have to reeducate themselves all over again,” he said. “Not only in terms of identifying themselves as voters, but identifying who their representatives are going to be. I think it’s somewhat unsettling, particularly amongst our older populations.”

Rouson said the harm of watered-down votes for minorities has always been a concern. He said redistricting throughout the country is a reaction to the “browning” of the United States, which is projected to become majority non-white by 2050.

“The more diverse our social structure became, the more opportunity to defy and dilute,” he said.

Castor, who is running for reelection this year, said whether the maps hold up to lawsuits or not, voters still have power at the ballot box.

Voters “can’t tune out and turn off,” she said.

“That’s what they want. That’s part of this power play,” Castor said. “They don’t want the average person to have a voice to do anything about it. It’s quite intentional.”

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(Times staff writers Ashley Borja and Langston Taylor contributed to this report.)

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