{"id":251491,"date":"2026-04-29T20:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251491\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T20:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:15:09","slug":"legislature-approves-congressional-map-intended-to-boost-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/251491\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislature approves congressional map intended to boost Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Florida Legislature approved a new congressional map Wednesday intended to maximize Republicans\u2019 advantage in the state as part of\u00a0the national redistricting battle<\/a>\u00a0that President Donald Trump launched ahead of this year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n

The vote came just two days after Gov. Ron DeSantis\u00a0unveiled his proposal<\/a>\u00a0and the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court\u00a0rolled back a key provision<\/a>\u00a0of the Voting Rights Act. The decision could make it harder for Democrats to challenge Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts in ways that limit the influence of nonwhite voters.<\/p>\n

The House approved the map 83-28 on Wednesday morning. The Senate approved it 21-17 in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

DeSantis\u2019 map could increase Republicans\u2019 advantage in Florida\u2019s House delegation to 24 to 4, up from the current split of 20 to 8. The potential four-seat gain is the same as what Virginia Democrats expect from\u00a0a recent redistricting referendum<\/a>, which is being challenged in\u00a0state court there.<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Jacksonville groups decry Florida\u2019s proposed congressional redistricting<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s new map is certain to face lawsuits as well, especially because the state constitution prohibits redistricting for explicitly partisan purposes. DeSantis and his aides believe those provisions will not be a legal barrier because they have been weakened previously<\/a> by the Florida Supreme Court and again by Wednesday\u2019s U.S. Supreme Court ruling.<\/p>\n

Florida Republicans, comfortable in their supermajority in both legislative chambers, said little about the new districts during the whirlwind special session. The measure\u2019s sponsor, Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, limited her remarks to careful answers about an \u201cevolving legal landscape\u201d as Democrats\u2019 asked her about the redistricting effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that there is a likelihood that that map will be upheld against legal challenge,\u201d Persons-Mulicka said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Florida\u2019s new congressional map, with changes highlighted in blue.<\/p>\n

Democrats decried it as a partisan power play to satisfy Trump and hurt the majority of registered Florida voters who are not Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cY\u2019all are doing this because y\u2019all\u2019s daddy in the White House is injecting national political objectives into what should be a state-driven process,\u201d Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, told her Republican colleagues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Legislature approved a new congressional map Wednesday intended to maximize Republicans\u2019 advantage in the state as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-251491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251491","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=251491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}