Residents of Orlando’s high-tech economic engine of Lake Nona have little in common with landowners in rural communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee and the citrus farmers of Indian River. Yet under newly drawn congressional maps, they’ll share a congressional representative.
Those who live in the south Orange County bedroom community of Hunter’s Creek will share their member of Congress with retirees in The Villages. One southeast Orlando city council district, represented by Commissioner Tom Keen, was chopped into pieces, with sections falling into the new Districts 8, 9 and 10.
“There’s zero in common,” said Keen. “It’s not a compact district anymore.”
The new redistricting map for Florida’s congressional seats would eliminate several Democratic-leaning districts, including District 9 in Central Florida. District 9 would now stretch from Orlando to Lake Okeechobee and over to Sebastian Inlet. (The-Downballot.com)
Such are the strange quirks of Florida’s new Congressional map.
They are no accident, critics say. The districts were largely drawn to create a map that on paper gives Republicans a whopping 24-4 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.
The new district lines were revealed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday, and within two days, Florida’s GOP-controlled House and Senate had approved them. Now they’re awaiting DeSantis’ signature and, barring being invalidated by the courts, will be in place for midterms later this year.
The purpose, DeSantis insisted, was to account for a short-changing of Florida’s population by the U.S. Census. But in addition, President Donald Trump has called for states to redraw lines to create more districts favorable to Republicans ahead of the midterms, a process that began with a similar redraw in Texas.
In Florida’s version, Democratic strongholds such as Orange County’s urban core were crammed into one sturdy blue district – where U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando, is the incumbent – and other Democratic areas on the outskirt were shoved elsewhere to put Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, in peril.
Soto’s District 9 will now touch seven counties and span more than 120 miles – or roughly a two-hour drive through Florida’s spine – taking in rural farmland around Lake Okeechobee, the key waterway of the Sebastian Inlet, as well Kissimmee, St. Cloud and fast-growing Lake Nona.
Soto, who confirmed he plans to still run for re-election in the new right-leaning boundaries, said it would be an “amazing opportunity to represent coastal areas” and noted he already works on agricultural, citrus and space issues on committees.
He did say the new lines threaten the influence of voters in Central Florida by slicing up Orlando into parts of three districts and Orange County into four. Osceola County, currently contained entirely within District 9, will be chopped into two districts despite 9 being lengthened and extended well to the south.
Florida’s 2010 Fair Districts Amendment, which voters approved with 63% support, set standards for such boundaries, including that they “where feasible must make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries.”
“Keep in mind this whole gerrymander really blows apart metro area delegations,” Soto said, noting a similar split in the Tampa area, a heavily Democratic city which will be split into three GOP-leaning seats with no district hospitable to a Democrat. “The real economic engines of the state are the ones under attack the most.”
Redrawn boundaries of Florida’s congressional districts in Central Florida pack more Democrats into District 10 in Orlando in order to make surrounding districts more Republican-leaning. Current boundaries are outlined in light blue. (The-Downballot.com)
However, state Republican Committeeman Mark Cross, who lives the Osceola County neighborhood Buenaventura Lakes, said the map will be a marked improvement for the county, in part because he thinks a Republican almost assuredly will represent the district. And if that means the person isn’t an Osceola County resident, Cross said that won’t be too bad.
”Even a non-Osceola Republican would be better than an Osceola County Democrat,” he said.
District 9 isn’t the only one to see big and sometimes awkward changes across the map.
The crowded south Orange County neighborhood of Hunter’s Creek, adjacent to and similar demographically to Osceola County, moved from District 9 into District 11, which snakes roughly 70 miles across west Orange County and through Lake County all the way to The Villages, the famously Republican stronghold where Trump addressed supporters Friday.
Soto said his mother’s home in Celebration was chipped off the western edge of District 9 and now falls into District 18, which covers the Lakeland area west to near Plant City.
Notably, Orlando was divvied up so much that a single neighborhood within city limits, Pinewood Reserve, was actually placed in District 8, represented by U.S. Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Indian Harbour Beach. Its residents are the lone Orlandoans in the Brevard and East Orange district.
District 8 previously ran the length of Brevard, incorporating Christmas and ending just east of Wedgefield. But now it swings further west, taking in swaths of east Orange, the University of Central Florida, Central Florida Research Park, all the way to Pinewood Reserve, just east of State Road 417.
According to the state Senate president’s office, the population breakdown of the new districts lists the number of Orlando residents in District 8 as a mere “5.”
But those numbers, taken from Office of Economic and Demographic Research, the American Community Survey, and the 2020 Census, are either six years old or based on estimates that could be way off the mark.
There are 441 single family houses and townhomes in Pinewood, a new subdivision that was constructed during the Covid-19 pandemic and marketed with prices and amenities to appeal to young families.
Samuel Vilchez-Santiago, the former Orange County Democratic chair and a candidate for the Florida Legislature, said he moved to Pinewood Reserve in 2022. As he’s knocked on doors, campaigning for his neighbors’ support, he said a few mentioned the possibility of being redistricted. He said he feared their new representative might not be in tune with the needs of Orange.
“I didn’t think it would go all the way to Melbourne,” he said. “I don’t necessarily think the people of East Orlando and East Orange County have much in common with the people of Brevard.”