Dunn, a 69-year-old surgeon who got here into Congress the identical yr as Lawson, had maintained that he was a “higher match” for the district and hammered Lawson with adverts that tied him to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Biden.
Dunn outraised Lawson greater than two-to-one whereas Lawson’s pleas for assist had been rebuffed by nationwide Democrats scrambling to cling on to their majority within the Home.
Lawson first ran for Congress in 2016 after the state Supreme Courtroom put in place a minority entry district that stretched from simply west of Tallahassee to Jacksonville. Florida picked up an additional congressional seat throughout reapportionment and the GOP-controlled Legislature initially drew up a map that will have largely stored Lawson’s seat intact.
However DeSantis vetoed the map, ultimately handed by state legislators, and as an alternative pushed by means of one his workplace drew up that redistributed roughly 360,000 Black voters in Lawson’s district into 4 totally different districts. Lawson’s hometown of Tallahassee — and all of Democratic closely Leon County — was positioned in Dunn’s district.
The dismantling of Lawson’s seat was a part of a revamp that’s anticipated to let Republicans choose up as many as 4 further seats in Congress. Different adjustments pushed by the governor turned two different seats held by Democrats into GOP-leaning ones.
Lawson blasted DeSantis over the redistricting adjustments and referred to as it “illegal and unconstitutional.”
Civil rights and voting rights teams have challenged the state’s present congressional map however the litigation presently beneath means in each federal and state court docket will not be anticipated to be resolved till someday in 2023.
Regardless of the chances in opposition to him, Lawson pushed forward with a marketing campaign contending he “nonetheless had it in his blood.”
He tried to enchantment to north Florida voters by stressing his skill to win federal funding for hometown tasks in addition to hitting Dunn over his vote in opposition to a brand new regulation that expands well being care advantages for veterans.