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A congressional redistricting map unveiled by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday would give Florida Republicans four new seats, making the count 24-4. (Executive Office of the Governor)<\/p>\nTALLAHASSEE \u2013 Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday unveiled a plan to add four Republican-leaning seats to Florida\u2019s congressional delegation, responding to President Donald Trump\u2019s demand that states redistrict to ensure a GOP majority in the U.S. House.<\/p>\n
DeSantis revealed his map to Fox News on the eve of a special legislative session he called to redo the state\u2019s congressional district map, which must be approved by the Legislature.<\/p>\n
His plan would leave only four Democratic-leaning seats in Florida \u2014 three in South Florida and one in Orlando. It would eliminate a Hispanic majority seat in Central Florida now held by Democrat Rep. Darren Soto and any Democratic-leaning seats in the Tampa Bay area.<\/p>\n
A congressional redistricting map unveiled by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday would give Florida Republicans four new seats, making the count 24-4. (Executive Office of the Governor)<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s 28 congressional seats are currently held by 20 Republicans and eight Democrats. The change, based on voter registrations, would make the outcome likely 24 to four.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s justification for redistricting is that Florida\u2019s population has grown dramatically since the last congressional map was adopted in 2022 using 2020 census data.<\/p>\n
To offset any criticism of drawing a map that appears to diminish minority voting power, the office\u2019s general counsel, in a memo to lawmakers, said the governor\u2019s map \u201cdoes not take race into consideration at all\u201d because doing so is unconstitutional. The memo also said the governor ignored Florida\u2019s Fair District Amendments, which prohibit political gerrymandering, because those rules also take race into consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlorida got shortchanged in the 2020 Census, and we\u2019ve been fighting for fair representation ever since,\u201d DeSantis told Fox News Digital in explaining his map. \u201cOur population has since grown dramatically, and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Democrats called DeSantis\u2019 planned mid-decade redistricting unconstitutional, especially because of the Fair Districts constitutional amendment, which voters approved in 2010 and specifically prohibits partisan gerrymandering.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lawsuits have already been drafted,\u201d Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of how much more evidence they\u2019re going to give us before the lawsuits are filed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump made it clear from the start that this was a partisan attempt to take control of the mid-terms, she said. DeSantis proved that when he provided a red-and-blue color-coded map and mentioned the 1.5 million voter registration advantage Republicans have over Democrats in Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all partisan, completely illegal and unconstitutional,\u201d Fried said. \u201cIt\u2019s one more example of the overreaching corruption by DeSantis that started with this war Trump started in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than an hour after Fox News broke the story of DeSantis map, the Florida Legislature received a copy, along with population data for each new district. His office refused to say what population data was used for the new map.<\/p>\n
The map and data must be drafted into a\u00a0 bill that state lawmakers will get their first chance Tuesday to review, debate and offer amendments, following a presentation by the governor\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n
A full hearing of both chambers on the map is scheduled for Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Civil rights advocates and Democrats criticized the timing of the map\u2019s release, saying it leaves\u00a0the public little time to examine and comment on it, greatly curtailing any sense of transparency for a process that will have a huge impact on voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are 24 hours from the first vote in the Florida Senate on a secretly drawn congressional map that we\u2019ve not even seen,\u201d Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, said Monday before the map was released. \u201cWe\u2019ve not even seen them. The public has never seen the maps. This is not a legal or legitimate process and everyone knows it, and they should vote accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responding to a demand from Trump to help maintain GOP control of Congress, DeSantis spent months urging the Legislature to take up a rare mid-decade redistricting process leading up to the 2026 midterm elections. He called a special session in January,\u00a0 after Texas and other states already went through a similar process. He moved the session back a week from April 20 to this Tuesday after Virginia voters approved a map that added four Democratic-leaning seats to their congressional delegation.<\/p>\n
Several Florida congressmen warned that an aggressive redistricting plan could hurt them, because it would wind up diluting GOP strength in their districts, making them potentially vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t do it,\u201d said veteran lawmaker Rep. Daniel Webster of Clermont.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve said it from the beginning. I\u2019ve been around enough reapportionments to know it\u2019s a slippery slope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove warned on Fox & Friends that there is a risk because \u201cthey\u2019re going to have to take Republican votes out of Republican districts and put them into Democrat districts, and that\u2019s going to lower the numbers for some incumbent Republicans, and they may lose a seat or two.\u201d<\/p>\n
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries pledged \u201cmaximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,\u201d if Republicans in Florida go ahead with their redistricting efforts, calling their plan a \u201cdummymander\u201d that could backfire.<\/p>\n
The House Majority PAC has pledged $20 million to defeat Republican incumbents in Florida. That includes $9 million for Miami, $6.6 million for Tampa, and $3.9 million for Orlando.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur message to Florida Republicans is, \u2018F around and find out,\u2019\u201d Jeffries said last week.<\/p>\n
DeSantis replied that he welcomed Jeffries to come and try and even offered to put him up at the governor\u2019s mansion and take him fishing. \u201cGo ahead, make my day. Bring it on,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing that could be better for Republicans in Florida than to see Jeffries everywhere around this state\u201d.<\/p>\n
Florida has added roughly 2 million people since the last congressional map was approved, with most of that growth occurring in the Orlando, Tampa and Miami metro areas. That map was submitted by DeSantis \u2014 with the help of several top GOP redistricting consultants \u2014\u00a0 after he vetoed a map the Legislature had approved that would have given Republicans a 18-12 advantage and preserved districts with large enough Black populations that a Black congressman was a strong possibility.<\/p>\n
His 2022 map eliminated about half of Florida\u2019s mainly Black congressional districts and gave Republicans its current 20 to eight advantage. It faced several legal challenges but was ultimately upheld by the Florida Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
The new map appears to push most Democrats in Central Florida into the seat currently held by Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando, one of the most progressive members of Congress and an outspoken critic of the Trump administration policies on immigration and other policies.<\/p>\n
It eliminates the majority Hispanic district anchored by Osceola County and currently held by Soto. That change could bring rise to the strongest legal challenge that could jeopardize the governor\u2019s map, if approved by the Florida Legislature, some say.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat district is still protected by the part of the voting rights act that protects minority districts,\u201d said Matt Isbell, a Democratic consultant and election analyst. \u201cAnd even if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the Voting Rights Act protections, the Florida Fair Districts amendment still applies.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the heavily Democrat South Florida, the governor\u2019s map targets two wildly popular Democrats \u2014\u00a0 Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston and Jared Moskowitz of Coral Springs \u2014 while leaving Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach relatively safe.<\/p>\n
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