Florida House advances redistricting bill that aims to give GOP 24-4 congressional advantage

The Florida House on Wednesday approved a new congressional map proposed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that aims to give Republicans four more seats as the party seeks to maintain control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.

The map is now before the Florida Senate, where the Republicans also have a two-thirds majority. Three Republicans on Florida's Senate Rules Committee voted against the map on Tuesday, with one GOP state senator in Tuesday's committee hearing vocally pushing back against the map. But there would need to be seven GOP defectors to sink its passage. 

Florida is currently represented by 20 Republicans and seven Democrats, with one Democratic-leaning seat vacant after Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned earlier this month. DeSantis' proposed map aims to eliminate or shrink Democratic-leaning districts in Tampa, Orlando and parts of the state's southeast coast. 

The vote came hours after the Supreme Court narrowed a section of the Voting Rights Act that requires some states to create majority-minority districts. At least one of the districts that DeSantis had redrawn was a majority Hispanic district in central Florida. 

DeSantis posted on social media that the Supreme Court decision "invalidates the below provisions of the FL Constitution requiring the use of race in redistricting: 'districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice.'"

In committee hearings on Tuesday, attorney Mohammed Jazil did not answer if the maps complied with that provision. But there were other objections that the proposed map violates a 2010 provision to the Florida Constitution known as the Fair Districts Amendment. That law bans partisan gerrymandering. 

In a letter sent to legislators by DeSantis' general counsel David Axelman, he argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision against Louisiana's map helps his case against racial requirements for redistricting in Florida's own constitution, as determined by its "Fair Districts" amendments.

"Much like Louisiana's 'intentional compliance with the court's demands constituted an express acknowledgement that race played a role in the drawing of district lines,' Florida's intentional compliance with the [Fair Districts Amendments] would constitute such an acknowledgement," Axelman wrote.

"Florida cannot do so. We therefore continue to urge you to enact the proposed congressional map," he added.

Any potential legal challenges would face an uphill battle since DeSantis appointed six of the seven justices on Florida's Supreme Court.