Most Florida voters don’t know who represents them in Congress. Redistricting confused them further

Most Floridians can’t name their U.S. Representative, and the recent redrawing of Florida’s congressional lines is only adding to the confusion.

That’s according to a new survey by Tallahassee-based Sachs Media.

On base political awareness, pollsters found only 39% knew who represented them in the U.S. House at all, while 61% did not know. Republicans were more aware, with 51% knowing their Representative compared to 28% of Democrats and 44% of respondents with no party affiliation.

While more than half of voters over age 45 knew their representative, only 20% of those under 45 did.

The pollster found more Republicans believe they will keep their former Congressperson after the redraw than Democrats. But nearly half of voters remain unaware what impact redistricting will have on their representation.

About 47% said they were “not sure” whether their U.S. House Representative will change. Meanwhile, 36% believe their Representative will remain the same, while 16% believe their member of Congress will change under the new lines.

Of note, the new map drawn by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Office leaves Florida’s 1st through 7th Congressional Districts, all of which are represented by Republicans, unchanged. Most significant changes were around Democrat-held seats in Tampa, Orlando and South Florida.

Of poll respondents expecting no change under the new map, about 51% voted for their current member of Congress. About 29% voted against their Representative and another 4% did not vote at all. Another 16% could not recall.

Among those who say the map leaves them with the same representation, about 79% of those who voted for their current Representative were Republicans, and just 12% were Democrats.

But among those expecting redistricting to change their district, 65% don’t know who their member of Congress will be under the new lines, while 35% already figured that out.

Of course, there was even less awareness of the role of voters’ state Representatives in the redistricting process. About 63% of voters had no idea how their Florida House Representative voted on the new maps. About 25% knew their lawmakers supported the redistricting and 11% said their Representative opposed it. About 1% believed their Representative did not vote on the map.

The legislation passed the House on an 83-28 vote. One Republican, state Rep. Hillary Cassel, voted against the map. Two Democrats initially voted for the map but said that was in error and later changed their votes.

Sachs surveyed 1,115 Florida voters May 8-10 through a random sample of the state voter file. The poll had a 3-percentage-point margin of error at the 95% confidence level.