{"id":236219,"date":"2026-04-17T22:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/236219\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T22:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:16:11","slug":"florida-republicans-face-redistricting-risks-ahead-of-april-28th-special-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/236219\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Republicans face redistricting risks ahead of April 28th Special Session"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2eb0a7cf412fbeefbc6a4974011d6aca.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On April 28th, Florida is set to join as many as nine other states that have undertaken or are considering mid-decade redistricting, and the power of balance in the US House could be at stake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But there are indications that Florida\u2019s GOP majority could be left with a case of buyer\u2019s remorse if they are too aggressive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt should be the voters that choose their elected officials, not their elected officials choosing their voters,\u201d said State Representative Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando).<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Eskamani noted that, unlike other states, Florida\u2019s constitution prohibits drawing maps to benefit one party, and Democratic lawmakers are already preparing a lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWhen it comes to the legality of this, the cards are stacked against Governor DeSantis and President Trump,\u201d said Eskamani.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">What that map will look like, though, is not yet known.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Speaker Pro Tem Wyman Duggan (R-Jacksonville) said lawmakers are waiting to see what map the Governor proposes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThat\u2019s how we got the current map that\u2019s in place. That came from the Governor after he vetoed our first work product,\u201d said Duggan. \u201dSo, I think the ball is in the Governor\u2019s court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdrinst.org\/_files\/ugd\/2e96a7_91cb87402fe14357bf3b4a4745232420.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:An analysis released this week;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;An analysis released this week&quot;}\" class=\"link \">An analysis released this week<\/a> by the Civic Data &amp; Research Institute concluded aggressive redistricting in the Sunshine State could actually increase the number of competitive seats from four to seven.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">With recent special elections producing heavy Democratic gains, Eskamani argued Republicans could run the risk of losing seats rather than gaining seats if they push too far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI think that this is an example of power-hunger and just unhinged desire to control everything that will backlash,\u201d said Eskamani.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When asked when the Governor\u2019s Office would be ready to present its preferred maps, a spokesperson simply told Action News Jax, \u201cStay tuned\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/live-breaking\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:&gt;&gt;&gt; STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE &lt;&lt;&lt;;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;&amp;gt&quot;}\" class=\"link \">&gt;&gt;&gt; STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE &lt;&lt;&lt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">[DOWNLOAD: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">[SIGN UP: <a href=\"https:\/\/membercenter.actionnewsjax.com\/newsletters\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On April 28th, Florida is set to join as many as nine other states that have undertaken or&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[71984,28270,28,30,29,9105,88611],"class_list":{"0":"post-236219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-democratic-lawmakers","9":"tag-elected-officials","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-president-trump","14":"tag-state-representative-anna-eskamani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}