{"id":255321,"date":"2026-05-02T12:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255321\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T12:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T12:01:08","slug":"floridas-redistricting-splinters-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255321\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida’s redistricting splinters Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents of Orlando\u2019s high-tech economic engine of Lake Nona have little in common with landowners in rural communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee and the citrus farmers of Indian River. Yet under newly drawn congressional maps, they\u2019ll share a congressional representative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those who live in the south Orange County bedroom community of Hunter\u2019s Creek will share their member of Congress with retirees in The Villages. One southeast Orlando city council district, represented by Commissioner Tom Keen, was chopped into pieces, with sections falling into the new Districts 8, 9 and 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s zero in common,\u201d said Keen. \u201cIt\u2019s not a compact district anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe new redistricting map for Florida’s congressional seats would eliminate several Democratic-leaning districts, including District 9 in Central Florida. District 9 would now stretch from Orlando to Lake Okeechobee and over to Sebastian Inlet. (The-Downballot.com)<\/p>\n

Such are the strange quirks of Florida\u2019s new Congressional map.<\/a><\/p>\n

They are no accident, critics say<\/a>. The districts were largely drawn to create a map that on paper gives Republicans a whopping 24-4 advantage in the state\u2019s congressional delegation.<\/p>\n

The new district lines were revealed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday, and within two days, Florida\u2019s GOP-controlled House and Senate had approved them. Now they\u2019re awaiting DeSantis\u2019 signature and, barring being invalidated by the courts, will be in place for midterms later this year.<\/p>\n

The purpose, DeSantis insisted, was to account for a short-changing of Florida\u2019s population by the U.S. Census. But in addition, President Donald Trump has called for states to redraw lines to create more districts favorable to Republicans ahead of the midterms, a process that began with a similar redraw in Texas.<\/p>\n

In Florida\u2019s version, Democratic strongholds such as Orange County\u2019s urban core were crammed into one sturdy blue district \u2013 where U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando, is the incumbent \u2013 and other Democratic areas on the outskirt were shoved elsewhere to put Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, in peril.<\/p>\n

Soto\u2019s District 9 will now touch seven counties and span more than 120 miles \u2013 or roughly a two-hour drive through Florida\u2019s spine \u2013 taking in rural farmland around Lake Okeechobee, the key waterway of the Sebastian Inlet, as well Kissimmee, St. Cloud and fast-growing Lake Nona.<\/p>\n

Soto, who confirmed he plans to still run for re-election in the new right-leaning boundaries, said it would be an \u201camazing opportunity to represent coastal areas\u201d and noted he already works on agricultural, citrus and space issues on committees.<\/p>\n

He did say the new lines threaten the influence of voters in Central Florida by\u00a0slicing\u00a0up Orlando into parts of three districts and Orange County into four. Osceola County, currently contained entirely within District 9, will be chopped into two districts despite 9 being lengthened and extended well to the south.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s 2010 Fair Districts Amendment, which voters approved with 63% support, set standards for such boundaries, including that they \u201cwhere feasible must make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep in mind this whole gerrymander really blows apart metro area delegations,\u201d Soto said, noting a similar split in the Tampa area, a heavily Democratic city which will be split into three GOP-leaning seats with no district hospitable to a Democrat. \u201cThe real economic engines of the state are the ones under attack the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RedrawnRedrawn boundaries of Florida’s congressional districts in Central Florida pack more Democrats into District 10 in Orlando in order to make surrounding districts more Republican-leaning. Current boundaries are outlined in light blue. (The-Downballot.com)<\/p>\n

However, state Republican Committeeman Mark Cross, who lives the Osceola County neighborhood Buenaventura Lakes, said the map will be a marked improvement for the county, in part because he thinks a Republican almost assuredly will represent the district. And if that means the person isn\u2019t an Osceola County resident, Cross said that won\u2019t be too bad.<\/p>\n

\u201dEven a non-Osceola Republican would be better than an Osceola County Democrat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

District 9 isn\u2019t the only one to see big and sometimes awkward changes across the map.<\/p>\n

The crowded south Orange County neighborhood of Hunter\u2019s Creek, adjacent to and similar demographically to Osceola County, moved from District 9 into District 11, which snakes roughly 70 miles across west Orange County and through Lake County all the way to The Villages, the famously Republican stronghold where Trump addressed supporters Friday.<\/p>\n

Soto said his mother\u2019s home in Celebration was chipped off the western edge of District 9 and now falls into District 18, which covers the Lakeland area west to near Plant City.<\/p>\n

Notably, Orlando was divvied up so much that a single neighborhood within city limits, Pinewood Reserve, was actually placed in District 8, represented by U.S. Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Indian Harbour Beach. Its residents are the lone Orlandoans in the Brevard and East Orange district.<\/p>\n

District 8 previously ran the length of Brevard, incorporating Christmas and ending just east of Wedgefield. But now it swings further west, taking in swaths of east Orange, the University of Central Florida, Central Florida Research Park, all the way to Pinewood Reserve, just east of State Road 417.<\/p>\n

According to the state Senate president\u2019s office, the population breakdown of the new districts lists the number of Orlando residents in District 8 as a mere \u201c5.\u201d<\/p>\n

But those numbers, taken from Office of Economic and Demographic Research, the American Community Survey, and the 2020 Census, are either six years old or based on estimates that could be way off the mark.<\/p>\n

There are 441 single family houses and townhomes in Pinewood, a new subdivision that was\u00a0constructed during the Covid-19 pandemic and marketed with prices and amenities to appeal to young families.<\/p>\n

Samuel Vilchez-Santiago, the former Orange County Democratic chair and a candidate for the Florida Legislature, said he moved to Pinewood Reserve in 2022. As he\u2019s knocked on doors, campaigning for his neighbors\u2019 support, he said a few mentioned the possibility of being redistricted. He said he feared their new representative might not be in tune with the needs of Orange.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think it would go all the way to Melbourne,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily think the people of East Orlando and East Orange County have much in common with the people of Brevard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents of Orlando\u2019s high-tech economic engine of Lake Nona have little in common with landowners in rural communities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[315,168,28,29,1975,2174,5773,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,1976,99,109,3690],"class_list":["post-255321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-brevard-county","tag-celebration","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-kissimmee","tag-lake-county","tag-lake-nona","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-osceola-county","tag-politics","tag-social","tag-the-villages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255321","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=255321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}