The Florida Legislature approved a new congressional map on Wednesday intended to maximize Republicans' advantage in the state as part of the national redistricting battle that President Donald Trump launched ahead of this year's midterms. The vote came two days after Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled his proposal and on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, a decision that could make it harder for Democrats to challenge Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts.
DeSantis' map could increase Republicans' advantage in Florida's House delegation to 24 to 4, up from the current split of 20 to 8. The potential four-seat gain is the same as what Virginia Democrats expect from a recent redistricting referendum, which is being challenged in state court there. Florida's new districts are certain to face lawsuits, especially because the state constitution prohibits redistricting for explicitly partisan purposes. DeSantis and his aides believe those provisions will not be a legal barrier because they have been weakened previously by the Florida Supreme Court and again by Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Swift Legislative Action
Florida Republicans, comfortable in their supermajority in both legislative chambers, said little about the new districts during the special session. The measure's sponsor, Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, limited her remarks to careful answers about an "evolving legal landscape" as Democrats asked her about the redistricting effort. Persons-Mulicka said, "I believe that there is a likelihood that that map will be upheld against legal challenge."
The Florida Senate approved the plan in a 21-17 vote after the House passed the measure in an 83-28 vote. From the session's opening bell Tuesday morning, Republican leaders moved swiftly. In one of just two committee hearings, Senate Rules Chair Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said she wanted "everybody who has taken the time and effort to come to Capitol to have an opportunity to speak." Then she declared each speaker would have 30 seconds.
Accounting for Population Growth
DeSantis and his aides said before and during the session that the new map is necessary to account for population growth in suburban and exurban areas since the sixth year and to ensure Florida has a "race-neutral" congressional plan. The proposal presumed the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court's Wednesday decision, which specifically struck down a Louisiana congressional district drawn for the electorate to be majority Black. Historically, Black voters have aligned more with Democrats, while a majority of white voters lean toward Republicans.
The new map reshapes districts in Democratic areas around Orlando, the Tampa-St. Petersburg area and in south Florida around Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The changes could cost Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others, their seats. The changes in Florida include the effective elimination of one nearly majority Black south Florida district that was represented by Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Black Democrat, until her resignation earlier this month.
On the House floor, Persons-Mulicka sidestepped specifics about what factors went into the map. She repeatedly called it "race-neutral," citing testimony from DeSantis aide Jason Poreda, who took sole credit for the map during the session and did not disclose the names of any architects. Asked about Poreda's admission that he examined party affiliation and voting patterns, Persons-Mulicka said, "I cannot speak to the intent of the map drawer."
Democratic Opposition
Democrats, activists and some citizens decried the process as a partisan power play to satisfy Trump, boost DeSantis' future ambitions and hurt the majority of registered Florida voters who are not Republicans. Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, told her Republican colleagues before the House vote, "Y'all are doing this because y'all's daddy in the White House is injecting national political objectives into what should be a state-driven process."
Rep. Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat, said, "Last time I checked, we're the ones who were supposed to be drawing the map, and yet we are allowing y'all to continue to hold the water of the governor, who is a lame duck and just trying to figure out what his next job is going to be." House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said, "On destroying our democracy, they've been aligned, and that's what we did here today."
Deborah Courtney, who drove more than two hours from Jacksonville, said all citizen speakers expressed opposition. Rob Woods, from the Tampa area, said he was a veteran who had "bought in from elementary school" on notions of the U.S. as an equal-opportunity democracy, but now "it seems as if we are back in that period of Reconstruction, moving back to Jim Crow."
Potential Electoral Risks
The new map could face a similar conundrum to Texas, which based its revised lines largely on Trump's performance in the second year, redistributing the president's voters across more districts to pull them into the Republican column. But Trump's popularity has waned since his reelection, including among Latino voters who figure prominently in the state. Florida could face a similar problem, because creating more majority-Republican districts could leave margins thin enough to allow Democratic victories, especially if there is an anti-Trump backlash at the polls this year.
Some Republicans have expressed worry about that possibility, and a handful voted against the measure in the Florida Legislature. Persons-Mulicka and Sen. Don Gaetz, a Crestview Republican who sponsored the map in the Senate, deflected questions about why DeSantis unveiled the plan on Fox News. Gaetz said he had no part in drafting the map and forwarded the governor's proposal to other senators as soon as he received it late Monday morning.
DeSantis had also wanted lawmakers to adopt state regulations on artificial intelligence and roll back vaccine mandates for students in Florida's public schools, but House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican but not a DeSantis ally, blocked both ideas. DeSantis called it "political shenanigans."
Why This Matters:
Florida's redistricting effort represents a significant test of state authority over electoral boundaries following the Supreme Court's decision to narrow Voting Rights Act provisions. The Legislature's swift action, conducted in a special session with limited public input, demonstrates how the evolving legal landscape around redistricting empowers state lawmakers to reconfigure congressional districts based on population shifts since the sixth year. The map's emphasis on race-neutral criteria aligns with the Supreme Court's same-day ruling, potentially insulating it from federal legal challenges. However, the plan's reliance on Trump's second year electoral performance introduces electoral risk, as shifting voter sentiment could undermine Republican advantages in newly drawn districts. The four-seat potential gain would strengthen Republican control of Florida's congressional delegation, but thin margins in redrawn districts could prove vulnerable if Trump's waning popularity continues. The tension between DeSantis and House Speaker Perez on other legislative priorities also reveals internal Republican divisions that could affect future governance in the state.