Florida lawmakers passed redrawn congressional lines Wednesday that would create four additional Republican-leaning House seats, handing Gov. Ron DeSantis a major political victory and making the state the eighth to complete mid-decade redistricting in the 2026 cycle.
The measure cleared both chambers on largely party-line votes, though the plan carries enormous constitutional risk. The maps directly conflict with Florida's anti-gerrymandering amendment, known as Fair Districts, which bars districts designed to benefit a political party and protects minority-performing districts. DeSantis and legislative Republicans are betting that future court rulings will overturn those voter-approved protections.
"I can't speak to the process or what happened when map drawers were drawing the map, all I can say I was not involved in drawing the map," said state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, the Republican sponsoring the proposal on the House floor. When asked why she was sponsoring a bill she couldn't defend, Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon quipped back, "Why are you even sponsoring this bill?"
The maps eliminate several Democratic strongholds. Rep. Darren Soto's seat in the Orlando area would be abolished, with the sizable Puerto Rican population there carved into multiple districts. Similar moves target Tampa Bay, which would shift from having one Democratic seat to none. Rep. Kathy Castor's current district would be redrawn into Republican territory. In South Florida, seats held by Democratic Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz would also become GOP-leaning under the new lines.
The timing of Wednesday's vote proved crucial. Just hours before the full House debate began, the U.S. Supreme Court handed DeSantis a major legal boost in a 6-3 ruling rejecting the idea that the Voting Rights Act requires Louisiana to draw a second majority-minority congressional district. DeSantis immediately declared victory on social media, writing "Called this months ago" shortly after the decision.
The Supreme Court ruling did not abolish Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voters from discrimination in elections. But it weakened the justification for creating or maintaining districts where minority voters can elect candidates of their choice. DeSantis has long argued that such a ruling would be critical to his redistricting push.
House Democrats requested a break to review the Supreme Court decision, a motion the Republican majority blocked. The Senate granted the break. The timing appeared designed to prevent Democrats from mounting a coordinated response to the ruling's implications for Florida's map.
DeSantis released his map just one day before the special legislative session began, limiting lawmakers' ability to conduct independent analysis or propose alternatives. Persons-Mulicka acknowledged the compressed timeline left her unable to answer substantive questions about the plan's design.
The governor's legal theory rests on challenging the Fair Districts amendment itself. His office argues that the amendment's provisions protecting minority-performing districts violate the 14th Amendment because they require consideration of race. A memo from DeSantis general counsel David Axelman stated that "properly understood, the Fourteenth Amendment forbids the government from divvying up the citizenry based in whole or in part upon race."
During a committee hearing Tuesday, DeSantis administration map drawer Jason Parada acknowledged using political performance data when drawing the proposal, something Democrats argue violates Fair Districts. But Parada said he excluded racial data entirely, following the governor's direction. This distinction suggests an attempt to evade constitutional scrutiny by claiming the maps were drawn without considering race, even as they achieve the same racial sorting effect through partisan data.
The maps are almost certain to face a legal challenge in Florida's Supreme Court, where DeSantis has appointed six of the seven justices. That fact alone may not settle the matter. The state constitution, approved by voters, carries independent force, and even a conservative court could face pressure to respect the amendment's clear language.
This marks part of a broader national push by Republicans to redraw lines mid-decade, something virtually unheard of before Trump became president. Several Democratic-controlled states have retaliated with their own aggressive maps, creating a partial stalemate nationally. But Florida's move is particularly aggressive because it not only redraws lines to benefit Republicans but also attempts to invalidate the constitutional amendment protecting against that very practice.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "DeSantis got the maps he wanted, but he's betting heavily that courts will eventually agree his constitutional theory is sound. History suggests they won't."
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