DeSantis Proposes Florida Redistricting Map to Gain GOP House Seats

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis has proposed new Florida voting lines that could help Republicans win four additional seats in the U.S. House this November. DeSantis has called lawmakers to a special legislative session starting Tuesday. The governor's office released a map Monday morning showing red and blue districts indicating that, if adopted, it would create 24 Republican-leaning and four Democratic-leaning districts. Currently, the state is represented by 20 Republicans and seven Democrats, with one other seat becoming vacant recently following a Democratic lawmaker's resignation. DeSantis told Fox News, "Our new map for 2026 makes good on my promise to conduct mid-decade redistricting, and it more fairly represents the makeup of Florida today." The governor's office confirmed the map but it was unclear if he had submitted it to the lawmakers yet. Florida redistricting could put the GOP back on top in a race that President Trump started to reshape the midterms. But the effort in Florida could face court challenges and political headwinds, especially after Democrats flipped two Republican-held legislative seats in the state earlier this year. Reshaping districts could spread out Republican votes, making some safe Republican seats more competitive. Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, has called the redistricting effort "unconstitutional gerrymandering," and some Democrats say it could end up benefiting their candidates in the end. But Evan Power, chair of the Republican Party of Florida, is an advocate for a new map. "When they draw compact districts, we're going to get a lot more Republicans here in Florida," Evan Power, chair of the Republican Party of Florida, said on Newsmax Friday morning. The special session has already been delayed once DeSantis originally called for lawmakers to meet April 20, but then delayed the session by a week. Redistricting is one issue on the governor's agenda along with easing school vaccine requirements and applying guardrails to some uses of artificial intelligence products. The path toward redistricting in Florida is difficult. The state outlaws political gerrymandering, or redrawing lines for partisan gain. Other states allow partisan gerrymandering and that was the reason politicians have used to justify joining the race Trump kicked off last year. The governor has suggested that the state could be "forced" to redraw districts because of racial preferences in the current map in favor of minority communities. But that would only come from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the federal Voting Rights Act, and that ruling hasn't come yet. The party in the White House usually loses House seats in the midterm and President Trump's agenda could be at stake if Democrats take control. Usually states redistrict at the start of each decade after the census shows how many U.S. House seats each state should have. But President Trump set off a mid-decade redistricting race to secure more seats by pushing Republican-led states to redraw their maps before the midterm elections.