{"id":342821,"date":"2026-07-16T23:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342821\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T23:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:18:09","slug":"gops-florida-gerrymander-is-looking-a-bit-fragile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342821\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP\u2019s Florida gerrymander is looking a bit fragile"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before Florida Republicans passed a blatantly partisan<\/a> mid-decade redraw<\/a> of their state\u2019s congressional map to benefit the GOP, Democrats warned<\/a> that such a move could backfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republicans are dummymandering their way into the minority before a single vote is cast,\u201d House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said<\/a> in April, using a term for when a party draws a map it thinks will extract the maximum number of seats but ends up spreading its voters so thin that the opposing party ends up winning more races.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, we got a sign that Jeffries\u2019 warning may prove correct.<\/p>\n

A new poll<\/a> of Florida\u2019s redrawn 14th District shows incumbent Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor ahead of her two possible GOP opponents: former state Rep. Mike Beltran and state Rep. Kevin Steele.<\/p>\n

\"DemocraticDemocratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida, center in pink, listens as a colleague speaks about the climate crisis during a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2022.AP<\/p>\n

The survey, conducted by St. Pete Polls, finds Castor leading Beltran 46% to 38% and leading Steele 46% to 39%. The remainder in each are undecided.<\/p>\n

Castor leads even though President Donald Trump carried the newly redrawn seat by nearly 11 percentage points, according to data<\/a> from The Downballot.<\/p>\n

When Republicans redrew Florida\u2019s districts, even nonpartisan political handicappers warned that doing so could blow back at the GOP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe riskiest play? Targeting Castor, b\/c surrounding Tampa Bay GOP seats would be absorbing many of her Dem voters,\u201d the Cook Political Report\u2019s Dave Wasserman wrote<\/a> in a post on X in April.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s 14th District is yet another seat Trump carried where Republicans appear to be struggling as anger<\/a> at Trump\u2019s economy<\/a> threatens both the GOP\u2019s House<\/a> and Senate majorities<\/a>. Other surveys<\/a> released over the last two weeks show Democrats leading<\/a> or neck-and-neck with Republicans in seats Trump carried in 2024.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, another new survey released this week showed Democrats holding a massive lead<\/a> of 26 points among Americans who dislike both parties. That\u2019s a big reversal from 2024, when those voters backed Trump and helped him win the presidency.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the midterms may prove to be so ugly for Trump and the GOP that not even their corrupt gerrymanders can save them<\/a>. And they have only themselves to blame.<\/p>\n

\tWe’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.<\/p>\n

We continue to be paywall-free. We continue to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or corporations. But we need to bring in more revenue. We are leaning on our community more than ever to help make ends meet.<\/p>\n

\t\tPower matters.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our daily top stories newsletter so you don’t miss how it’s being used\u2014and what comes next.<\/p>\n

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\n\tRecommending and sharing stories helps us decide which stories are most important to show our readers.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Florida Republicans passed a blatantly partisan mid-decade redraw of their state\u2019s congressional map to benefit the GOP,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2715,140654,28,30,29,140655,63435,23231,140656],"class_list":["post-342821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-elections","tag-fl-14","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-kathycastor","tag-polling","tag-polls","tag-win-the-majority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342821","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=342821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}