John Liccione Files Emergency Lawsuit to Stop DeSantis Luna-Protection Racket Doublecross Gerrymander: “Bring Our Voters Home. Leave Pinellas Alone!”
FL Democratic CD-13 candidate says unconstitutional DeSantis map deports 103K Pinellas voters across two bays to protect Anna Luna, slice-and-dice south Pinellas County, and bury CD-13 voters in CD-16
JOHN LICCIONE FOR CONGRESS CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE
May 5, 2026 | DUNEDIN, FLORIDA
John Liccione, Rebel Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, has filed an emergency lawsuit and injunction motion to stop Governor Ron DeSantis’s new congressional map, calling it a “Luna-Protection Racket Doublecross Gerrymander,” designed to protect Republican incumbent Anna Paulina Luna by deporting CD-13 South Pinellas voters most likely to vote her out of office. (Florida 6th Circuit Court, Case No. 26-CA-002751-CI).
“DeSantis has weaponized his election RICO enterprise against District 13 voters at the speed of AI,” Liccione said. “He is deporting and disenfranchising voters to protect Luna with only 40days left before the first vote-by-mail report must be transmitted to the Florida Division of Elections by the Pinellas County Supervisor of elections.
According to Liccione’s Ballotir voter-impact analysis, the DeSantis map deports 103,359 Pinellas voters from current CD-13 and CD-14 into new CD-16, including 63,448 Democratic-led Coalition voters. Liccione defines Coalition voters as Democrat, NPAs, Others likely to vote against Luna.
It deports 23,537 more Coalition voters than Republican voters from the anti-Luna CD-13 coalition and reduces CD-13’s Democratic-led Coalition advantage from 74,710 to 51,173.
“The numbers and the double-cross-bay invasion into Pinellas by CD-16 prove corrupt motive,” Liccione said. “DeSantis drew this map to shield Luna by deporting 23,537 more Coalition voters than Republican voters from the CD-13 fight, and dumping them into a red Manatee-anchored district where Manatee alone already has a 72,063 Republican registration advantage.
Liccione said the deported voters are the voters who can build a winning CD-13 general-election anti-Luna coalition. “The voters DeSantis is deporting are the voters who would vote against Luna in November — Democrats, NPAs, Others, and moderate Republicans,” Liccione said. “That is a CD-13 general-election supermajority coalition. DeSantis knows it. Luna knows it. Trump knows it.”
Liccione called the maneuver the DeSantis Double-Cross-Bay Whipsaw in his lawsuit. “Wave One crossed Tampa Bay from the east to snatch CD-13 voters into CD-14 to get Luna elected in 2022,” Liccione said. “Wave Two crosses Tampa Bay AND Boca Ciega Bay from the south.”
“CD-16 is a southern invasion through the southern beaches of Pinellas County. They invade to the north across TWO bays, Tampa Bay and Boca Ciega Bay, seize South Pinellas voters, and deport them out of the District where their votes would defeat Luna - in a 20-point landslide.” Liccione said his lawsuit defends CD-13 voters’ right to vote and to have that vote counted in the race where it matters most.
“If you are a deported CD-13 voter, this lawsuit is about your vote,” Liccione says. “It is about whether DeSantis gets to deport you, disenfranchise you, and bury your vote in another red district to protect Anna Luna and the Republican CD-14 incumbent. I am the candidate taking this fight to court because our voters should not be deported out of their own congressional race in their own storm-ravaged county that is literally a peninsula on a peninsula.”
The lawsuit also highlight the disaster-recovery consequences of the map. South Pinellas barrier-island and bayfront communities are still recovering from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, including storm surge, FEMA fraudulent substantial-damage assessments, permitting disputes, rebuilding delays, federal recovery money, and contractor oversight.
“South Pinellas is a storm-recovery community,” Liccione said. “Gulfport, St. Pete Beach, Treasure Island, Madeira Beach, the Redington beaches, South Pasadena, Boca Ciega Bay, southern Seminole, and St. Petersburg are still dealing with Trump’s FEMA, substantial-damage assessments, permitting, rebuilding, mitigation, contractor oversight, insurance, and federal recovery money. DeSantis’s map cuts those communities away from Pinellas-centered representation at exactly the moment they need it most.”
Liccione tied the redistricting fight to what he calls the TidalGate scandal — the South Pinellas disaster-recovery fraud scandal involving DeSantis contractor Tidal Basin Group and their fake Substantial Damage Assessment scheme.
“This is the same DeSantis who took $25,000 from Tidal Basin Group for his second inauguration. The same Tidal Basin that donated $48,408 to Casey DeSantis’ and AG James Uthmeier’s Hope Florida Foundation.
It’s the same Tidal Basin that hit Gulfport, Madeira Beach, Treasure Island, Redington Beach, the Redington Beaches with thousands of fake Substantial Damage Assessments, fraud that drove people out of their retirement homes so the billionaire class could swoop in, and scoop them up at firesale prices.” Liccione said.
“Now DeSantis is deporting those same South Pinellas TidalGate victims out of CD-13, the only congressional district that could hold his political donorclass accountable for what TidalGate did to South Pinellas homeowners who lost everything because of his corruption.”
“DeSantis’s map rolls the Luna-Protection Racket and the TidalGate cover-up into one corrupt double-cross gerrymander.”
Liccione says the disaster-recovery counter-attack shows why he is different from his opponents. “This is where I know what I’m talking about,” Liccione said. “I ran for Congress in 2024. I ran for Gulfport Mayor in 2025. I am connecting this corrupt map to the lived reality of South Pinellas residents: Storm surge, damaged homes, fraudulent damage assessments, FEMA rules, federal recovery dollars, and the need for a member of Congress whose district is centered in the communities that were actually hit.”
“Florida’s Supreme Court already warned them about this geographic manipulation,” Liccione said.
“Same Pinellas. Same Tampa Bay. Same governor. Same unconstitutional partisan redraw. This time DeSantis invaded our beaches from the south with CD-16.”
Liccione’s emergency motion asks the court to immediately halt implementation of the map before voters are reassigned, ballot styles are built, vote-by-mail systems are configured, and candidates are forced to qualify under unconstitutional lines.
The motion cites the June 8–12 congressional candidate qualifying period, the August 18 primary, the November 3 general election, and the June 19 vote-by-mail activity reporting operational deadline, which begins 60 days before the primary.
“This is why Pinellas County is the beachhead and why we must fight them on the beaches and fight them in the courts,” Liccione said.
“CD-16 is the southern invasion. The statewide gerrymander lands here. The voters are deported from here. The storm-recovery communities are severed here. The corrupt election machine is attacking us through the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections . And a Pinellas court has the power to stop it here before the unconstitutional map corrupts the 2026 election.”
Liccione said other lawsuits may attack the statewide map, but his lawsuit is a laser. It shows how the gerrymander attacks the people in CD-13. “My lawsuit shows the modality of corruption,” Liccione said.
“It protects Anna Paulina Luna by deporting South Pinellas voters from the district where she is vulnerable — and it abandons storm-recovery communities that Luna abandoned in 2024 when she threw our beach towns under the bus while cheerleading for Trump at his NY trial. We need Pinellas-centered federal representation right now.”
Liccione is asking the court to require a lawful map for the 2026 congressional elections, to restore South Pinellas voters to a Pinellas-centered CD-13. “Anna Paulina Luna should have to face the voters of South Pinellas she threw under the bus after Helene and Milton,” Liccione said. “DeSantis should not get to deport voters to save her seat. I am running to unseat Luna, and I will not stand by while DeSantis disenfranchises our voters to protect her.”
Liccione closes his lawsuit introduction with the battle cry:
“Bring our voters home. Leave Pinellas alone!”
“That’s the whole case in seven words.”
ABOUT JOHN LICCIONE John Liccione is a Democratic candidate for Congress in Florida’s 13th Congressional District. He is running to unseat Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna and restore constitutional, accountable, people-centered representation to Pinellas County.
Campaign website: JohnForPinellas.com | john@johnforpinellas.com
Political advertisement paid for by John Liccione for Pinellas.