![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/MIA_31_Florida_Legislation_Session_2026_MJO.JPG\" "\\"The")
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The Florida Capitol<\/p>\n
Photo by Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n
mocner@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
Tallahassee<\/p>\n
Just 48 hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled his proposal for a new congressional map that could give the GOP four more seats, the Florida Legislature approved the plan.<\/p>\n
The map faced strong opposition from Democrats, who chided their Republican colleagues for supporting what they said was a hurried and unconstitutional plan driven by President Donald Trump\u2019s goal of maintaining GOP congressional control.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it doesn\u2019t scream illegal to you, it ought to just scream unfair and unjust,\u201d said Sen. Barbara Sharief, a Miramar Democrat.<\/p>\n
No Republican besides the bill sponsors spoke spoke out in support of DeSantis\u2019 plan during debate on Wednesday in the House or Senate.<\/p>\n
Four Senate Republicans broke from their party to vote against the proposal. One Republican in the House, Rep. Hillary Cassel, of Dania Beach, voted against the plan.<\/p>\n
With DeSantis\u2019 plan approved, the governor is likely to sign the change into law this week, putting the new districts on track to be in place for the 2026 midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Lawsuits are all but inevitable.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: South Florida Democrats may be knocked out of Congress by DeSantis\u2019 new FL map<\/a><\/p>\n The proposal came together quickly. Jason Poreda, a governor\u2019s office employee who drew the map, said he started his work two weeks ago.<\/p>\n Poreda finished the plan over the weekend. Lawmakers first saw the map Monday in a Fox News article, color-coded by political party.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the House sped through less than two hours debate and questions before voting in favor of the plan along party lines.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a partisan map drawn in secret on demand from Washington and shoved through this chamber on a clock designed to keep the public out of the room,\u201d Minority Leader Rep. Fentrice Driskell said Wednesday.<\/p>\n No Republican in the House debated in support of the plan before the vote, including bill sponsor Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, a Fort Myers Republican.<\/p>\n When questioned about the legality of the map, Persons-Mulicka repeatedly said she had no role in crafting it and said she believed the legal arguments laid out by DeSantis\u2019 lawyers.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe the map before us today is a good map and based on viable legal theories and likely to be upheld,\u201d Persons-Mulicka said.<\/p>\n During the vote, Rep. Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat running for U.S. Senate, began shouting into a pink bullhorn as lawmakers were casting their votes, saying lawmakers were violating the constitution.<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s debates were also disrupted by the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s morning release of an opinion<\/a> in the Louisiana v. Callais case, a decision about the Voting Rights Act that DeSantis has cited as part of his impetus for redistricting.<\/p>\n Murmurs began among lawmakers, who soon began pulling up the decision on their phones and underlining printouts shared by staff.<\/p>\n Democrats in the House tried to pause debate to give lawmakers time to read the decision, which the Republican majority rejected. The Senate, which is also planning to vote on the governor\u2019s proposal Wednesday, took an hour-long pause.<\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019 legal counsel had expected the high court would rule that race in redistricting is always improper.<\/p>\n Though the court\u2019s decision was slightly more narrow, DeSantis still took a victory lap Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n On social media, he said the court\u2019s decision implicated a Florida district, \u201cthe legal infirmities of which have been corrected in the newly-drawn (and soon to be enacted) map.\u201d<\/p>\n Republican Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola-based lawyer, said in a text message that he and other lawmakers felt pressured to \u201cgerrymander based on race\u201d to comply with the Voting Rights Act and Florida Constitution.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Callais opinion makes clear that gerrymandering based on race is unconstitutional,\u201d he said. \u201cI was ecstatic to read that opinion before voting today.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Senate, Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Sunny Isles Beach independent, said he couldn\u2019t vote in support of the plan because he needed more time to digest the opinion.<\/p>\n Opponents of DeSantis\u2019 plan have said it violates Florida\u2019s Fair Districts Amendment, a voter-approved part of the constitution adopted in 2010.<\/p>\n Fair Districts prohibits lawmakers from drawing districts that favor a political party. It also prohibits lawmakers from drawing districts to reduce minority voting power.<\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019 office has argued that if one component of the Fair Districts Amendment is inapplicable, which they say the racial requirement is, the other part \u2014 the ban on partisan gerrymandering \u2014 can\u2019t stand<\/a>.<\/p>\n David Axelman, the governor\u2019s general counsel, sent a letter to lawmakers Wednesday morning after the Supreme Court\u2019s decision came out. In the memo, he said the court set an \u201cextraordinarily onerous standard\u201d for states to use race in redistricting.<\/p>\n Axelman said Florida can\u2019t meet that bar.<\/p>\n