Democrats are outraged about the recently approved Florida congressional redistricting map, which will likely increase the number of congressional Republicans in Florida from 16 to 20. There’s also some dissatisfaction coming from both sides of the political aisle when it comes to discussing the splitting up of Congressional District 13 in Pinellas County.

The new map now moves current Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor’s Congressional District 14 seat based in Hillsborough County across Tampa Bay, picking up parts of Pinellas Park and eastern and downtown St. Petersburg.

The result makes Castor’s already blue seat even bluer, but it strips out large Democratic parts of CD 13, making it much more Republican friendly for the 2022 election. According to MCI Maps, the change moves CD 13 from a Biden + 4 district in 2020 to a Trump +7 seat, using voting records from the 2020 election. 

Kyandra Darling is a community activist who’s active in the Pinellas County Democratic Party. She’s extremely upset about what the new map does to downtown and south St. Pete.

Kyandra Darling

“St Petersburg has always been a very powerful influential voting bloc,” Darling told Spectrum News. “So to now see half of St. Petersburg across from 34^th Street, a lot of our South side in mostly Democratic (precincts) go over to representation in Tampa is unfathomable. I can’t believe it’s actually happening.”

Darling says that while the community will still have a Democrat representing them in Congress, it won’t be the same situation.

“I think Kathy Castor is a great representative, but she’s in Tampa. Her priorities have always been in Tampa. So for such a small amount of us to have to move over to her district, I’m concerned that we won’t receive the same advocacy and attention that we need, nor the knowledge that directly impacts us.”

And while Republicans are likely to flip Congressional District 13 from blue to red, not every Republican in St. Pete is thrilled about what it does to St. Pete.

Celene Brink is a downtown St. Petersburg-based insurance consultant and a registered Republican. She says that while she understands the “dynamics” of redistricting, she’s not happy about breaking up St. Petersburg into two congressional districts.

Celene Brink

“We’re not Tampa,” she says about the fact that she’ll now be represented by Castor. “We have our different issues as a whole within Pinellas County. Pinellas County is made up of middle and small businesses. Tampa has the base. They have MacDill (Air Force Base). They have other issues that we don’t necessarily have.”

Brink is an unabashed supporter of Amanda Makki, making her second straight run for the Republican nomination for the Congressional District 13 seat this year. She believes that Makki, who lost to Anna Paulina Luna for the nomination in 2020, had a shot at winning the now former CD 13 seat if she became the general election candidate in the fall.

“She had enough following in downtown St Petersburg, and the southeast side of St Petersburg that I think would have surprised people,” Brink said. “We have been running meetings and gatherings and meet and greets and her popularity had exponentially increased. So I think it’s a loss to her candidacy that she won’t be able to pick up these votes.”

The new CD 13 configuration was found to have been in violation of the Florida Fair District Amendment in 2015 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which then redrew the map to separate Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. The new map, produced by Gov. DeSantis’ staff, returns the region back to that earlier formation.

As we reported last week, a couple of the candidates running in CD 13 now live outside of the district.

Lawsuits have been filed in both state and federal courts by voting rights groups against the new redistricted congressional map.