{"id":241809,"date":"2026-04-22T13:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/241809\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:20:11","slug":"hakeem-jeffries-promises-dems-will-target-8-gop-incumbents-in-florida-if-redistricting-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/241809\/","title":{"rendered":"Hakeem Jeffries promises Dems will target 8 GOP incumbents in Florida if redistricting happens"},"content":{"rendered":"

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is threatening that House Democrats will target eight Republican incumbents in Florida if state lawmakers redraw Florida\u2019s congressional map.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Florida Republicans proceed with this illegal scheme, they will only create more prime pick-up opportunities for Democrats, just as they did with Trump\u2019s dummymander in Texas,\u201d Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said in a statement shared<\/a> by Punchbowl News\u2019 Jake Sherman<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will aggressively target for defeat Mario D\u00edaz-Balart, Maria Elvira Salazar, Carlos Gim\u00e9nez, Kat Cammack, Anna Paulina Luna, Laurel Lee, Cory Mills and Brian Mast. We are prepared to take them all on, and we are prepared to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The warning came the same evening Virginia voters approved<\/a> an aggressive new congressional map where Democrats hold an edge in 10 of 11 seats. It also hit days from a Special Session<\/a> scheduled in Florida to redraw lines in the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n

Of note, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already listed four GOP-held seats in Florida as \u201cDistricts in Play<\/a>\u201d: those represented by Lee, Luna, Mills and Salazar. That means half of the GOP incumbents listed by Jeffries are already targets of the political arm for House Democrats under the current map. The House Majority PAC, an entity closely tied to Jeffries, also said in December 2024<\/a> it would target Luna and recruit against Gim\u00e9nez, Lee, Mils and Salazar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While Jeffries\u2019 aggressive list doubles the DCCC\u2019s current number, suggesting Democrats could target eight of 20 Republican seats in the Sunshine State, it\u2019s highly doubtful he knows what a new congressional map in Florida would look like. Gov. Ron DeSantis has not released a proposed map ahead of the April 28 Special Session to date, and members of the Florida Legislature say they have not been privy to drafts.<\/p>\n

But Jeffries\u2019 threat follows the release of an analysis<\/a> by the conservative Civic Data and Research Institute that shows an aggressive Republican redraw of Florida\u2019s congressional map \u201cmay paradoxically increase Republican vulnerability to adverse electoral conditions.\u201d That study predicted as many as seven Republican-controlled districts would become toss-ups based on the expected political environment of the 2026 Midterms.<\/p>\n

Jeffries\u2019 statement asserted that the mid-decade redistricting \u201cwar\u201d ultimately will benefit Democrats. Republican states including Texas and North Carolina have already redrawn maps, as have Democratic ones like California and Virginia. The would-be House Speaker said that could mean gains for Democrats in all cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast July, Donald Trump demanded that Texas draw five new Republican seats in the middle of a decade, igniting a chain reaction of corrupt MAGA state legislators attempting to rig the midterm elections. While many expected Democrats to roll over and play dead, we did the opposite. Democrats did not step back. We fought back. When they go low, we hit back hard,\u201d Jeffries said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won Prop 50 in California, reclaimed a seat in Utah, pushed back extremists in Ohio and halted toxic GOP efforts in Indiana, New Hampshire, Nebraska and Kansas. Tonight, thanks to the relentless work of Virginia Democrats, led by Governor Abigail Spanberger, Speaker Don Scott, State Majority Leader Scott Surovell and President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, \u2018YES\u2019 won and Donald Trump lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeffries said it would be folly for DeSantis to push Florida down the same path.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext week, Ron DeSantis is hauling the Florida legislature back into a special session to redraw maps because Republicans know they are on the verge of an epic defeat in November,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeSantis is clearly more interested in illegal gerrymandering than lowering the high cost of living or fixing our broken healthcare system. Right now, nearly 5 million Floridians are facing higher premiums because Republicans failed to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffries closed his statement promising \u201cmaximum warfare, everywhere, all the time\u201d through this year\u2019s Midterms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is threatening that House Democrats will target eight Republican incumbents in Florida if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8861,8863,8864,3951,96733,28,30,29,56691,106829,8873,8875,8878,8879,10351,412],"class_list":{"0":"post-241809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-anna-paulina-luna","9":"tag-brian-mast","10":"tag-carlos-gimenez","11":"tag-cory-mills","12":"tag-dccc","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-florida-headlines","15":"tag-florida-news","16":"tag-hakeem-jeffries","17":"tag-house-majority-pac","18":"tag-kat-cammack","19":"tag-laurel-lee","20":"tag-maria-elvira-salazar","21":"tag-mario-diaz-balart","22":"tag-redistricting","23":"tag-ron-desantis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241809","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=241809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}