Tallahassee (DNA/AP) — The Florida Legislature has approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republicans’ advantage in the state, possible adding four more Republican seats in the US House of Representative. This comes as part of the national redistricting battle that US President Donald Trump launched ahead of this year’s midterms.

The vote came just two days after Governor Ron DeSantis unveiled his proposal and the same day that the US Supreme Court rolled back a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, which could reshape redistricting. The decision could make it harder for Democrats to challenge Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts in ways that limit the influence of nonwhite voters.

Now it is up to Governor Ron DeSantis to sing the bill into law, a mere formality. He has said that the state's rapid population growth requires redistricting. Population changes in Florida have indeed been substantial: while then national increase was 7.4 percent, Florida grew at 14.6 percent between 2010 and 2020, the date of the last census. As a result, it is one of a handful of states to gain congressional representation for the coming decade.

Florida and Virginia could cancel each other out

DeSantis’ map could increase Republicans’ advantage in Florida’s US 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 congressional districts are certain to face lawsuits as well, especially because the state constitution goes further than the US constitution and 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 US Supreme Court ruling.

Florida Republicans, comfortable in their supermajority in both legislative chambers, said little about the new districts during the whirlwind special session. The measure’s sponsor, Representative Jenna Persons-Mulicka, a Republican from Fort Myers, limited her remarks to careful answers about an “evolving legal landscape” as Democrats’ asked her about the redistricting effort. “I believe that there is a likelihood that that map will be upheld against legal challenge,” Persons-Mulicka said.

Opposition was vocal but futile

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.

“This map is clearly designed to entrench power rather than reflect the will of the people,” said state Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat. “This moment is about more than the lines. It’s about whether we uphold the rule of law. I will not support a map that is illegal, that is rigged in order to appease an authoritarian who believes that he is king of the United States of America.”

The final vote in the Senate was 21-17, largely divided along partisan lines, even though a handful of Republican senators voted no. Earlier, the Florida House voted more overwhelmingly in favour with 83-28. “You are destroying democracy with this vote,” said state Representative Fentrice Driskell, the House Democratic leader, during floor debate.

Representative Angie Nixon started yelling into a hot pink megaphone at the time of the vote and chided Republicans for yielding the redistricting process to DeSantis, whose second term expires in January.

“Last time I checked, we’re the ones who were supposed to be drawing the map,” she said, “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.”

Democrats diminished in metro areas

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 US Representatives 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 Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Black Democrat, until her resignation from Congress earlier this month.

Lawmakers fast-tracked the measures

From the session’s opening bell Tuesday morning, Republican leaders moved swiftly. In one of just two committee hearings, Senate Rules Chair Kathleen Passidomo, a Republican from 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. “I know that doesn’t seem like a lot but it actually is, uh, if you’re concise,” she said.

Deborah Courtney drove more than two hours from Jacksonville and noted that all citizen speakers expressed opposition. “Why are you doing this redistricting now?” she asked senators. “I doubt that your phone have been ringing off the hook from your constituents going, hey, we need some new maps.”

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. But asked about Poreda’s admission that he examined party affiliation and voting patterns, Persons-Mulicka balked. “I cannot speak to the intent of the map drawer,” she said.

DeSantis unveiled the map on Fox News

Persons-Mulicka and Senator Don Gaetz, who sponsored the map in the Senate, deflected questions about why DeSantis unveiled the plan on Fox News. Gaetz, a Crestview Republican, confirmed 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.

There’s no guarantee that new maps across the country will play out the way two parties hope. For example, Texas based its revised lines largely on Trump’s performance in 2024, 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 conundrum. Creating more majority-Republican districts could leave margins thin enough to allow for Democratic victories, especially if there’s 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.

Author: By BILL BARROW

Florida approves new congressional map in boost to Republicans

By BILL BARROW