Florida Legislature passes redistricting plan creating four additional GOP-leaning House seatsGov. Ron DeSantis proposed the map this week. Florida is the eighth state to redraw its congressional map this election cycle. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got his maps.
State lawmakers passed redrawn congressional lines Wednesday that create four more GOP-leaning seats in Florida, making it the eighth state to complete mid-decade redistricting in the 2026 election cycle — and most likely setting up a historic legal challenge in the state. The proposal passed the state House and Senate on largely partisan lines, even as some members of the Republican majorities have expressed skepticism about redrawing the congressional lines.
Florida GOP lawmakers largely remained silent publicly as the state has become part of a Trump-backed mid-decade redistricting push designed to beef up Republicans' slim U.S. House majority ahead of the midterms.
Several Democratic-controlled states retaliated, leading to something close to a stalemate nationally. Much of the focus from opponents in the Legislature focused onhow DeSantis is using his office’s proposed redrawing of the state’s congressional lines to do away with anti-gerrymandering language in the state constitution, known as Fair Districts.
As lawmakers debated the maps Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court did hand DeSantis’ legal theory a partial victory.
In a 6-3 decision, the high court ruled in a long-awaited case that the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to draw a second majority-minority congressional district.
The ruling did not abolish Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which was enacted to protect minority voters who long faced discrimination in elections.
Though Section 2 remains intact, Republicans in Florida said the ruling is a win for their efforts to enact the maps drawn by DeSantis, who has long said the ruling would be key to Florida’s mid-decade redistricting process.
“Called this months ago,” DeSantis wrote on social media shortly after the ruling. State House Democrats asked for a break from debate to review the ruling, but the chamber’s Republican majority blocked the move. The Senate did grant a break for members to review the ruling.
The issue and the underlying constitutionality of Fair Districts are still almost certain to end up before the Florida Supreme Court. DeSantis has appointed six of its seven current members.
Democrats also criticized legislative Republicans for ceding all authority over the maps to DeSantis, who released his proposal just one day before the start of the special legislative session.
Persons-Mulicka, the House sponsor, said during the floor session that she was unable to answer many questions about the plan because the Legislature was not involved.
“I can’t speak to the process or what happened when map drawers was drawing the map; all I can say I was not involved in drawing the map,” she said.
Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon quickly shot back, “Why are you even sponsoring this bill?”
Few Republican members used the floor sessions to defend DeSantis’ proposal, instead often giving up their time allotted to debate the proposal as Democrats hammered it.
Democrats noted, among other things, that the sizable Puerto Rican population in the Orlando area would be carved up into several districts under DeSantis’ plan, diluting its political power.
Most are represented by Democratic Rep. Darren Soto, whose seat is abolished under the new plan. “So many communities are losing representation,” Democratic Rep. Fentrice Driskell said.
She noted that Tampa Bay is now also carved up into three separate districts, a move that also does away with the region’s only Democratic seat, which is held by Rep. Kathy Castor.
Under the new plans, seats held by Democrats Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, both of South Florida, would also be transformed into Republican-leaning districts.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/florida-legislature-passes-redistricting-plan-creating-four-additional-rcna342656