TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 Ron DeSantis was once the future of the Republican Party, a battle-tested conservative twice elected as governor of Florida. Then Donald Trump steamrolled him on his way back to the White House. <\/p>\n
Now, more than two years after DeSantis ended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump, the governor is returning to the national spotlight \u2014 at least for this week. He’s pushing state lawmakers to redraw Florida’s congressional map as part of a coast-to-coast redistricting battle<\/a> ahead of November’s midterm elections. His proposal would make it easier for Republicans to win four more seats, equivalent to Democrats’ potential gains from last week’s referendum in Virginia.<\/a><\/p>\n With DeSantis’ second term coming to a close, the special legislative session that starts Tuesday is one of his final opportunities to remind Republicans that he could lead the party one day. But there are also plenty of risks ahead for the 47-year-old governor. <\/p>\n Some Republicans are worried that a new map will backfire and make it easier for Democrats to pick up seats. In addition, DeSantis wants lawmakers to increase regulations for artificial intelligence and loosen vaccine requirements, two proposals that have previously stalled in Tallahassee. <\/p>\n Trump may be constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2028, but that doesn’t mean there’s a clear path for DeSantis, who would likely have Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio to contend with in a Republican primary. <\/p>\n \u201cThe window for Ron looks reasonably narrow at this point,\u201d said Whit Ayres, who served as DeSantis’ pollster in his first campaign for governor in 2018. <\/p>\n DeSantis, for his part, is embracing the national fight. When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., last week dared Florida Republicans to go ahead with their special session, the governor punched back with the kind of aggressiveness he showed in the early days of his failed White House bid. <\/p>\n \u201cI will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign,\u201d DeSantis said of Jeffries. \u201cI\u2019ll put you up in the Florida governor\u2019s mansion. We\u2019ll take you fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis wants four more Republican seats<\/p>\n DeSantis unveiled his proposed map to Fox News on Monday even before it had been widely circulated among lawmakers. He argued that the 2020 census shortchanged the state’s population, making it necessary to redraw the lines.<\/p>\n The governor’s map, if approved, would reshape districts in Democratic areas around Orlando and Tampa Bay, while also condensing Democratic voters into fewer South Florida districts. The changes could cost Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others, their seats. <\/p>\n The current maps yielded a 20 to 8 Republican tilt in 2024. DeSantis’ version would aim for an advantage of 24 to 4.<\/p>\n DeSantis first announced the special session back in January, months after Trump started pushing Republican-run states to redraw their congressional boundaries. What followed has been a tit-for-tat redistricting battle, with each party looking for an edge in the midterms. <\/p>\n There’s no guarantee that new maps would play out the way parties hope. For example, Texas based its revised lines<\/a> largely on Trump\u2019s performance in 2024, theoretically redistributing the president’s voters across more districts to pull them into the Republican column. But Trump’s popularity has waned<\/a> since his reelection, including among Latino voters that figure prominently in the state.<\/p>\n Florida could face a similar conundrum. If the state creates more majority-Republican districts but with thinner margins, it could dilute their advantage and give Democrats more opportunities to win seats, especially if there’s an anti-Trump backlash at the polls this year. <\/p>\n \u201cIf Florida moves like it can, the Republicans will at least be even,\u201d said Karl Rove, a former top political adviser to President George W. Bush. If Republicans get too aggressive, \u201cthey may lose a seat or two.\u201d<\/p>\n Brian Ballard, an influential Florida lobbyist who has been DeSantis\u2019 top fundraiser, said it\u2019s worth remembering that DeSantis was the muscle behind the 2021 map that expanded Republicans\u2019 advantage in the state to its current levels. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s incredibly smart and capable,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cAnd he doesn\u2019t get enough credit for that map. He\u2019s done this before.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida legislative leaders appear hesitant<\/p>\n Still, DeSantis will be testing his relationships with lawmakers, especially in a state House chamber that has grown more willing to buck the governor in recent sessions. House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton made clear for weeks that they were not drawing their own proposals and would react only to what DeSantis put forward.<\/p>\n Albritton has sent multiple memos to senators reminding them of Florida\u2019s state constitutional limits on redistricting and the requirement that it not be done as a blatantly partisan act. Perez, who convened a redistricting panel last year, has said in recent weeks that he expects something to get done, but he\u2019s been circumspect in his public statements.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re ready to have that conversation,\u201d he recently told WPLG in South Florida, before DeSantis released his proposal. <\/p>\n Besides redistricting, other topics won’t be much easier. DeSantis wants to require tech companies to ensure children cannot interact with chatbots without parental permission. He also wants to prevent AI from generating harmful material for minors. The proposal will put DeSantis at odds with Trump, who wants the federal government to be the regulatory arbitrator<\/a> of AI technology. <\/p>\n On vaccines, DeSantis wants to add a conscience-based exemption to public school vaccine requirements, similar to the existing religious exemption. The push aligns him with the anti-vaccine portion of the Trump base that was instrumental in pushing the president to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his health secretary.<\/p>\n Versions of DeSantis’ proposals have passed the state Senate previously but did not advance in the state House, where Perez has been skeptical. <\/p>\n Ballard downplayed concerns. What may seem to some as strained relations with certain Republican legislative leaders, he said, is simply measuring DeSantis against the opening years of his tenure.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, he went from batting a thousand to maybe batting .600,\u201d Ballard said, using a baseball analogy for the governor who played the sport while attending Yale. \u201cThat isn\u2019t failure.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House is watching<\/p>\n It’s hard to say how the session will affect DeSantis’ relationship with Trump or the president’s supporters. <\/p>\n Trump grew frustrated at DeSantis when they were competing for the Republican presidential nomination, calling him \u201cRon DeSanctimonious\u201d on the campaign trail. The governor, at least initially, gave conservative establishment figures and key donors an option other than the then-former president. <\/p>\n