TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – State lawmakers will return to Tallahassee in two weeks to redraw the state’s congressional maps, but they don’t have the Supreme Court ruling Gov. Ron DeSantis cited as the reason for the special session.
DeSantis said he wants the GOP supermajority to move forward regardless of when the court rules.
“I think that’s appropriate whether the decision comes before we do it or after,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis continues to make his case to redraw congressional boundaries before the midterms. His special session order cites a Supreme Court case from Louisiana addressing the Voting Rights Act.
“I also think we know how that Supreme Court case is going to come out at this point. I don’t think there’s much of a dispute about that. And I think Justice Alito is writing the opinion. So we’re looking at our map, understanding the issues in that case, and fixing it,” DeSantis said.
Senate President Ben Albritton’s office says he still agrees with his January memo to Senators to wait until they receive more guidance from the Supreme Court.
U.S. House districts are typically redrawn once a decade, immediately after a census. Florida has a constitutional amendment banning political gerrymandering.
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Many states are going into the midterms with new boundaries after President Donald Trump asked to keep more Republicans in Congress.
“Republicans nationwide have been scrambling to redraw our maps and rewrite the rules to defend their slim majority in Congress, redistricting in red states and trying to trick voters off the rolls with the SAVE Act,” said Nikki Fried, Florida Democratic Party Chair.
A recent Emerson College Poll shows the majority of voters think this is a bad idea.
“The timing could not frankly be worse to have this special session,” said political analyst Susan MacManus.
The information lawmakers would use to draw new maps would be the same as the current maps drawn in 2022. MacManus said there’s still a lot of uncertainty ahead of this special session.
“There are so many balls in the air right now. You can bet a lot of them have been looking at maps or thinking about how maps could be drawn, what lawsuits could happen,” MacManus said.
The special session is scheduled to start on April 20.
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