Florida passes DeSantis’ redistricting map that could net the GOP 4 seats

Democrats called the new map a power grab by Republicans.

Gary Fineout and Kylie Williams / POLITICO

 

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature on Wednesday passed a new congressional map that could help the GOP pick up four more seats in the state, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court announced a far-reaching ruling that could reshape redistricting. 

 

The final vote is a significant win for both Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump after Trump kicked off a mid-decade redistricting scramble across the country last year. But the new map is also destined to trigger a messy legal battle that could play out in both state and federal courts.  

Florida Republican legislators muscled through the map given to them by DeSantis just two days earlier, even as lawmakers were trying to absorb the Wednesday high court ruling. The state Senate took a brief delay to review the decision, and several senators could be seen reading it on their laptops.

The map was still approved largely along partisan lines, even though a handful of GOP state senators voted no. Democrats maintained the map was illegal because it runs counter to voter-approved, anti-gerrymandering standards in Florida, but some Republicans said they were swayed by a legal argument from DeSantis attorneys that said those requirements no longer needed to be followed.

“I don’t think we should do gerrymandering on the basis of political partisanship, and I don’t think there’s evidence this map does this,” countered state Sen. Don Gaetz, a Crestview Republican and one of the sponsors.

The House voted 83-28 in favor of the map even as one Democrat — state Rep. Angie Nixon — started yelling into a hot pink megaphone at the time of the vote. No House Republicans, other than the map bill sponsor, GOP state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, defended redistricting on the chamber floor.

“You are destroying democracy with this vote,” said state Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the House Democratic leader, during floor debate.

Democrats also ripped into the new map as a power grab that was launched only to help the political fortunes of Trump and Republicans.

“This map is clearly designed to entrench power rather than reflect the will of the people,” said state Sen. 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 Senate followed a few hours later with a 21-17 vote after a lengthy debate during which multiple Democrats called it a way to “cheat the people.” They criticized the way the map shifted minority communities into new districts and split voters living near Tampa and Orlando while also drawing other districts that stretched across the state.

Among Republicans, only Gaetz and Persons-Mulicka spoke about the new map as their GOP colleagues — perhaps eager to avoid getting tangled up in the looming legal fight — remained relatively silent. State Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Miami Republican who was one of five no votes, said that she opposed the map “because of common sense and my conscience.”

Republicans already have a 20-8 edge in the state, but the new map could potentially let the GOP push out a handful of Democratic incumbents, including long-serving Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The current map was pushed into law by the governor back in 2022, but DeSantis has been calling for newly drawn congressional lines since last summer. He has listed several reasons, including the possibility of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that came out Wednesday.

The new map was drawn in a “race neutral” fashion, leading the governor’s office to reshape a South Florida district that had been held by Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick until she resigned earlier this month.

But a top aide for the GOP governor acknowledged Tuesday that he relied on political data as part of his map drawing effort — a potential violation of “Fair Districts” standards approved in 2010 that ban lines drawn for partisan gain.

Attorneys for DeSantis contended that these anti-gerrymandering standards no longer needed to be followed because the state Supreme Court last year ruled that the minority voter protections that were also part of the same amendment did not need to be strictly followed. They said the amendment was a “package” that could not be broken apart.

Gaetz said he did not agree with that legal theory, although Persons-Mulicka a day earlier called the argument “persuasive.”

But Gaetz and other Republicans asserted that the last-minute Louisiana ruling bolstered the legal status of the map. State Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican, said the decision gave him a “ton of comfort” in voting yes on the map.

“With the court decision and the map that we passed today, I can confidently reassure everyone that your vote now matters just as much as your neighbors,” said Andrade.

The legal fight over the new maps could come as soon as DeSantis signs the measure into law, with several Democratic-aligned groups promising lawsuits.

“If they think they can get away with trampling over the will of the voters and ignoring the state constitution’s ban on partisan gerrymandering, they are sorely mistaken,” said John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. “This fight is not over, and Florida Republicans can expect fierce legal challenges against this new gerrymander.”