TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Florida lawmakers began a special session Tuesday to redraw congressional districts, moving forward with new maps from Gov. Ron DeSantis despite protests from hundreds of opponents.
House Speaker Daniel Perez said redistricting is the only issue the chamber will address this week, ruling out action on an AI Bill of Rights and medical freedom proposals.
The governor’s office shared the proposed map first with Fox News on Monday. The report says Republicans could net four more seats, holding 24 of Florida’s 28 congressional districts.
Protesters urge lawmakers to reject new maps
Hundreds of people from across Florida gathered outside the Capitol and packed legislative committee rooms, urging state lawmakers to keep the congressional districts as they are.
“They continue to peddle different reasons and rationales for why they should move forward on this,” said Genesis Robinson, Equal Ground executive director.
And Florida isn’t alone. This is part of a broader, national redistricting fight.
President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw districts to their favor last year in an attempt to win several additional House seats. That set off a chain reaction of similar moves in other states, leading to the voter approval last week of Virginia’s new map.
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Virginia’s Supreme Court is now considering whether to block a voter-approved map favoring Democrats.
Robinson reminded lawmakers that Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment bans drawing maps for political gain.
“This is the type of political gamesmanship that we were trying to stop when they passed the Fair Districts Amendment,” Robinson said.
DeSantis argues that the amendment was essentially undercut when the state Supreme Court ruled on a North Florida challenge.
New maps break up Democratic districts
The maps from DeSantis break up several districts held by Democrats around Tampa, Orlando and South Florida.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said the changes make Republicans more vulnerable.
“What they have done is not only piss off the people of our state. They’ve also given us an opportunity to not only protect the eight that are currently in the Democratic coalition, but also to pick up two to three more,” Fried said.
Republicans said they have not looked at politics with the maps.
“We haven’t reviewed the political performance of any of the districts. You will not see a color-coded map presented in committee today,” said Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, who is carrying the new map through the House.
Persons-Mulicka said the maps are fair.
“It is within our prerogative and our discretion to take up mid-cycle redistricting. In light of changing jurisprudence in the state of Florida. We feel confident in moving forward and we reviewed the map,” she said.
U.S. House districts are typically redrawn once a decade, immediately after a census. The average number of people in each congressional district increased from 696,345 to 769,221 in the 2022 map.
The redistricting comes as the country is waiting on the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on a case out of Louisiana dealing with the Voting Rights Act.
AI Bill of Rights dead in House
The Senate passed the same AI Bill of Rights that passed during the regular session. But Perez said the House will not act on it this week, nor on medical freedom.
“There were no bills filed on these policies prior to the start of this special session; consequently, we won’t be taking up those issues,” Perez said.
About a dozen people rallied outside the Capitol, hoping the legislature would approve the bills that died during the regular session. The AI bill would have included restrictions on inappropriate content for underage users.
“We should set the precedent here for the entire United States of America, that would be great. So it’s extremely disappointing that it didn’t pass, but this fight isn’t over,” said Jennifer Mitchell, mother of Ian Mitchell.
Rep. Sam Garrison, the House speaker designate, said the federal government should take the lead on AI protections.
“The president has made it very clear that his preference is for the federal government to lead; we will give them the opportunity to do that. If they fail to do that then we’ll address it,” Garrison said.
DeSantis criticized House Republicans on social media for not filing bills on AI protections and medical freedom.
“Voters elected Republicans to protect freedom against both the Big Tech cartel and the medical industrial complex. Yet, when given the chance to deliver for their constituents, not a single Republican House member could even be bothered to file a bill. Typical political shenanigans,” DeSantis said.
Lawmakers are planning to wrap up the special session on Wednesday.
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