{"id":285400,"date":"2026-05-26T23:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285400\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:42:18","slug":"judge-upholds-floridas-congressional-district-map-ahead-of-2026-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/285400\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge upholds Florida’s congressional district map ahead of 2026 election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA judge in Leon County issued an order on a rare mid-decade congressional district map that became law ahead of the 2026 General Election.According to court documents, on Tuesday Judge Joshua Hawkes ruled in favor of Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and denied Equal Ground Florida\u2019s request to temporarily block the map from being used.Hawkes noted at the end of his eight-page ruling that the primary election is less than three months away and the general election is less than six months.Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News\u201cThe public interest weighs more in favor of certainty than a haphazard judicial mandate of discarded maps,\u201d Hawkes wrote.The plaintiffs, Equal Ground Florida, sued Florida Secretary of State, the Florida House and Florida Senate on May 4, claiming that the congressional district map signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier on May 4 was intentionally drawn to favor Republicans, and violated the state constitution.Florida argued that a combination of accounting for the change in state population since the 2020 U.S. Census, and the U.S. Supreme Court April 29 decision on Louisiana v. Callais, which ruled that race cannot be the predominate metric used in drawing congressional districts, was factors in creating the congressional district map.\u201cWe will continue our fight to protect the will of Floridians who overwhelmingly voted to ban partisan gerrymandering in this state,\u201d said Common Cause\u2019s Florida Executive Director Amy Keith in a statement. \u201cBecause Floridians of all political backgrounds are so clearly against partisan gerrymandering, we will exhaust all legal options to make sure a map this partisan does not last the rest of this decade.\u201dCommon Cause said the plaintiffs will appeal the judge’s decision.\u201cLet\u2019s Roll,\u201d Gov. DeSantis, a Republican, posted on social media Tuesday afternoon after the ruling was released by the court.\u201cOnce again, we beat Marc Elias,\u201d Florida Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier said on a social media post. \u201cFlorida’s new congressional district maps stand.\u201dRepublican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power issued the following statement:\u201cGone are the days of snake-shaped districts. Florida\u2019s maps are drawn fairly and reflect the makeup of our state.The truth is, Republicans hold a more than 1.5 million voter registration advantage in Florida, and our representation should reflect today\u2019s Florida \u2014 not outdated, court-driven maps of the past.We thank Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature for their leadership in fighting for fair representation for Florida voters.\u201dGet the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here.The map will give Republicans the advantage in 24 congressional districts, while the Democrats will have the advantage in four congressional districts. Under the previous map, Democrats held the advantage in eight congressional districts, while the GOP was favored in 20 congressional districts.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tTALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

A judge in Leon County issued an order on a rare mid-decade congressional district map that became law ahead of the 2026 General Election.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, on Tuesday Judge Joshua Hawkes ruled in favor of Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and denied Equal Ground Florida\u2019s request to temporarily block the map from being used.<\/p>\n

Hawkes noted at the end of his eight-page ruling that the primary election is less than three months away and the general election is less than six months.<\/p>\n

Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 News<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe public interest weighs more in favor of certainty than a haphazard judicial mandate of discarded maps,\u201d Hawkes wrote.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs, Equal Ground Florida, sued Florida Secretary of State, the Florida House and Florida Senate on May 4, claiming that the congressional district map signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier on May 4 was intentionally drawn to favor Republicans, and violated the state constitution.<\/p>\n

Florida argued that a combination of accounting for the change in state population since the 2020 U.S. Census, and the U.S. Supreme Court April 29 decision on Louisiana v. Callais, which ruled that race cannot be the predominate metric used in drawing congressional districts, was factors in creating the congressional district map.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"florida<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue our fight to protect the will of Floridians who overwhelmingly voted to ban partisan gerrymandering in this state,\u201d said Common Cause\u2019s Florida Executive Director Amy Keith in a statement. \u201cBecause Floridians of all political backgrounds are so clearly against partisan gerrymandering, we will exhaust all legal options to make sure a map this partisan does not last the rest of this decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Common Cause said the plaintiffs will appeal the judge’s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s Roll,\u201d Gov. DeSantis, a Republican, posted on social media<\/a> Tuesday afternoon after the ruling was released by the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, we beat Marc Elias,\u201d Florida Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier said on a social media post<\/a>. \u201cFlorida’s new congressional district maps stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power issued the following statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cGone are the days of snake-shaped districts. Florida\u2019s maps are drawn fairly and reflect the makeup of our state.The truth is, Republicans hold a more than 1.5 million voter registration advantage in Florida, and our representation should reflect today\u2019s Florida \u2014 not outdated, court-driven maps of the past.We thank Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature for their leadership in fighting for fair representation for Florida voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The map will give Republicans the advantage in 24 congressional districts, while the Democrats will have the advantage in four congressional districts. <\/p>\n

Under the previous map, Democrats held the advantage in eight congressional districts, while the GOP was favored in 20 congressional districts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge in Leon County issued an order on a rare mid-decade congressional district map that became law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[68715,110002,7920,2811,121092,48759,28,30,29,112120,7289,2785,121091,38652,41318,4219,914,189],"class_list":["post-285400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-advantage","tag-congressional-district-map","tag-decision","tag-election","tag-equal-ground-florida","tag-favor","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-secretary","tag-gov-ron-desantis","tag-judge","tag-judge-upholds-floridas-congressional-district-map-ahead-of-2026-election","tag-partisan-gerrymandering","tag-plaintiff","tag-republicans","tag-state","tag-wpbf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285400","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=285400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}