(The Center Square) \u2013 Florida is poised to flip four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to Republican following Wednesday’s approval in a special session of the Legislature.<\/p>\n
Second-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan was approved 21-17 by the Senate after an 83-28 breeze in the House of Representatives. Florida’s representation in the U.S. House is 20 Republicans, seven Democrats with one vacancy following the resignation of former Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.<\/p>\n
New maps have been redrawn and implemented for November’s midterms in five states, another has a change from litigation, and three more states remain tied up in courtrooms. A fourth state in litigation, Louisiana, learned its fate from the U.S. Supreme Court earlier on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Those six changes done have given a potential net gain of three seats to Republicans\u00a0\u2013 a signature from DeSantis would bump it to seven. It all started last year when second-term Republican President Donald Trump encouraged Texans to redraw their maps, sparking a state to state domino effect from the two major parties.<\/p>\n
DeSantis, speaking to a broadcast network, said the state \u201cgot shortchanged\u201d in the decentennial census of 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur population has since grown dramatically, and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage,” he said. “Drawing maps based on race, which is reflected in our current congressional districts, is unconstitutional and should be prohibited.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur new map for 2026 makes good on my promise to conduct mid-decade redistricting, and it more fairly represents the makeup of Florida today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. House was divided 220 Republicans, 235 Democrats following the 2024 election cycle. Today, it’s 217 Republicans, 212 Democrats, one independent formerly Republican, and five vacancies.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s office says the redistricting was designed to adjust districts based on the state\u2019s rapid population growth of the last few years. Race was not a factor in drawing the new lines, a representative from the governor\u2019s office told legislators.<\/p>\n
Critics called the move partisan gerrymandering. They said it violates a state constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2010 that outlaws redistricting for partisan purposes.<\/p>\n
Opponents also complained that the new maps were leaked to Fox News before it was given to state legislators.<\/p>\n
The new maps will eliminate two Democratic congressional seats in Broward County, Fort Lauderdale Democratic Sen. Rosalind Osgood said during floor debate Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are doing here today is not just, it\u2019s not merciful, and it\u2019s certainly not about being humble,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about using power to gain more power.\u201d<\/p>\n
New maps are in play for the 2026 elections in California, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. Litigation has also led to changes in Utah.<\/p>\n
Virginia, Georgia and New York remain in litigation. The Supreme Court’s ruling announced Wednesday is expected to lead Louisiana to a new map for November. Maryland’s bid for new congressional maps died earlier this month.<\/p>\n
California has the potential to flip five seats to Democrats for a 48-4 representation for the party and Utah one to Democrats cutting into Republicans\u2019 4-0 representation. For Republicans, Missouri (to 7-1) and North Carolina (to 11-3) could gain one seat each; Ohio two (to 12-3); and Texas five (to 30-7).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The Center Square) \u2013 Florida is poised to flip four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2715,28,478,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-252105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-elections","tag-florida","tag-national","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252105","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=252105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}