Daniel DiDonato is a University of Alabama student who recently turned 18. Alabama has its statewide elections in 2026, so as a potential voter, DiDonato now has skin in the game. But even before he did, DiDonato decided to make his voice heard. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division, ruled in Alabama State Conference of the NAACP v. Allen that the state’s maps, particularly in Senate districts 25 and 26, were in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In August, district court Judge Anna Manasco ordered the maps to be redrawn.
Because of arguments before the United States Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais, in which Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed an amicus brief, Gov. Kay Ivey declined to call a special legislative session in order to redraw the maps. This left the task to Richard Allen, a special master charged with overseeing the new maps, and the courts. DiDonato decided he would not only redraw those maps, but he submitted them to the U.S. District Court for use in the case. DiDonato still had not reached the age of majority under Alabama law, so he filed the maps under his initials. Much to his — and others’ — amazement, District Judge Manasco ordered the implementation of his maps. If fully approved by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, the plaintiffs, and the special master, these maps could be used in the 2026 primary elections in May.
Daniel DiDonato says he’s been passionate about elections since he was a young child. He remembers watching the 2016 presidential election as a fourth grader.
That’s why DiDonato, an 18-year-old political science major at the University of Alabama, worked late at night and used a free redistricting app to draw six new Alabama Senate district maps, and submitted them, unsolicited, to a federal court in a lawsuit over potential Voting Rights Act violations in Alabama’s state Senate districts.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco ordered that one of DiDonato’s maps be implemented in the case.
DiDonato said in the NewsNation interview video below:
Mapmaking is just something I enjoy. Maps tell a story and especially election maps. And I figured that this has been in the news here in Alabama for the last five years. This case finally made it to trial, and a federal court said that Alabama’s state Senate maps unlawfully diluted African-American voting power in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. When the state had the opportunity to do something about that, the state said, “No.” So, the responsibility fell to the federal court. I ultimately decided, well, if the court was going to have to pick a map, then I figured I would at least send in a map so that I would have the opportunity to at least shape that process.
WATCH:
Daniel DiDonato, an 18-year-old college student, tells “The Hill” how he reacted when a federal judge approved his Alabama state legislative map over maps made by political experts. DiDonato says he joined the effort to create a fairer map for African American voters in the… pic.twitter.com/Lj2hJLkbQ4
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) November 21, 2025
Daniel DiDonato, an 18-year-old college student, tells “The Hill” how he reacted when a federal judge approved his Alabama state legislative map over maps made by political experts. DiDonato says he joined the effort to create a fairer map for African American voters in the Montgomery area.
Some lessons here: It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, a legislator, or a court, for that matter, to produce a map. Perhaps this should be the rule. Engaged citizens without an agenda are probably the best choice to know how maps should be drawn in order to achieve voter satisfaction and bipartisan ends. DiDonato said he did not use race as a factor in creating his model.
In the redistricting software, DiDonato was able to hide partisan and racial information, allowing him to draw the districts without intentional gerrymandering. His goal was to create population equality between the districts. In the end, the districts differ by two people.
“The legal standard is that with state legislative districts, plus or minus 5% is acceptable,” he said. “They try to keep the population deviation between districts as low as possible. One thing that my plan did is I did my best to achieve exact population equality.”
According to correspondence between DiDonato, the special master and Manasco’s staff, DiDonato submitted his plans to the team on Oct. 1. He was later invited to a hearing on the maps by Charles Singleton, a clerk at the Northern District of Alabama Federal Court, on Oct. 27. DiDonato could not attend due to lack of transportation.
Despite the fact that DiDonato could not attend the hearings and the lack of commentary on what he submitted, Judge Mancuso chose his as the map to be used moving forward. How far forward remains in question. Special Master Allen, AL SOS Wes Allen, and the plaintiffs’ attorneys are critical of the maps. Probably because a college student who stayed up until 3 a.m. and ate gummy worms for energy did the actual heavy lifting and didn’t even ask for credit.
Should the SCOTUS justices rule in favor of Louisiana and other states in Louisiana v. Callais, it would render this case moot, since the violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is the basis for these maps in the first place.
As my RedState colleague streiff wrote:
The requirement for additional majority-Black districts deprived the GOP of at least one seat in Louisiana, as well as one in Alabama. A decision declaring racial gerrymandering illegal will open the door to GOP court challenges across the nation and slam the door on Democrat lawsuits seeking to overturn districts because of perceived racial imbalance.
The stakes are high. The left knows if racial gerrymanders go away, their ability to disrupt elections is over.
Dive Deeper: Federal Judge Rules That Maps for Alabama’s Largest County Must Be Redrawn
Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Key Voting Rights Act Provision
Finally, AL AG Marshall has joined with Texas in their redistricting case, which asserts that state legislators have the right under the law to draw their maps as they see fit. Marshall is also running for Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s seat (R-AL), so his actions are also being viewed through a lens of whether he will be a fighter for Alabamians.
Lawsuits, thirsty politicians, and an ingenious young person who says he wants to make a difference are making interesting bedfellows.
Editor’s Note: Unelected federal judges are hijacking President Trump’s agenda and insulting the will of the people
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