First steps to further gerrymander Florida's congressional districts get underway
Republican redistricting chair says it would be 'irresponsible' to wait. Critics call it a blatant 'illegal' scheme that is banned by the state's constitution.
By Mitch Perry
The Florida House held its first committee meeting on the contentious issue of an unprecedented mid-decade congressional redistricting effort on Thursday.
It lasted less than 25 minutes and featured no public comment.
Rep. Mike Redondo, R-Miami, chairman of the Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting, explained to a packed hearing room that the meeting would focus only on an “education and introductory scope,” and it mostly consisted of an explanation about the process by Andy Bardos, an attorney with the Tallahassee office of Gray Robinson.
The hearing took place more than four months after Gov. Ron DeSantis first said it would be “appropriate” for Florida lawmakers to redraw their congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterm election, because he believes that the state was “malapportioned” following the 2020 U.S. Census.
But his comments came just weeks after President Donald Trump directed Texas to redraw its congressional map to add as many as five GOP seats to Congress, and that he’d like other states to follow suit.
Both blue and red states have since engaged in the congressional redistricting process, including California, Missouri, and North Carolina.
When should redistricting take place?
Gov. DeSantis said earlier this week that he wants the Legislature to work on congressional redistricting in a special legislative session to take place sometime after the regular session ends in mid-March. But Redondo said Thursday that with the state’s federal qualifying candidate deadline set for April 20, the issue must be dealt with by the end of the regular session.
“This committee was formed by the speaker ahead of the 2026 session, so that if we do decide to propose a new congressional map, we may do so under our traditional process of lawmaking, and with enough time to enact a map, if passed by our Legislature,” he said.
“Given the fact that we are less than a year away from the election, not to mention the fact that the candidate qualifying period for federal offices is in late April, it would be irresponsible to delay the creation and passage of a new map, especially until after session. It would also be irresponsible to any who are called for civil service, and most importantly, it would be irresponsible to the citizens of Florida.”
The House redistricting committee is next scheduled to meet again on Dec. 10.
Florida Senate President Ben Albritton had remained relatively silent but weighed in on the side of DeSantis on Wednesday.
“The Governor has expressed a desire to address this issue next Spring. As such, there is no ongoing work regarding potential mid-decade redistricting taking place in the Senate at this time,” Albritton told senators in a memo.
Florida Democrats and voting rights advocates have blasted the process, saying a plan to redraw the state’s congressional map to support getting more Republicans elected to Congress would be a direct violation of the 2010 Fair Districts amendment, which says that no reapportionment plan or individual district can be drawn “with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent.”
However, DeSantis said Wednesday that the state’s hand will “be forced” because of an expected ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which he says would implicate Florida’s existing congressional map.
“No matter what else, that is going to have to be addressed,” he said.
Redondo referenced the fact that lawsuits were filed after the state’s most recent congressional map was enacted in 2022, and so far it has been upheld in both state and federal courts. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the DeSantis-approved map in July, writing that the old Congressional District 5 likely constituted an illegal race-based gerrymander that violated federal equal-protection rights.
“While that decision upheld our current congressional map, it raises new and important questions about the interplay of redistricting requirements in federal and state law, which we’ll delve further into next week,” Redondo said. He also mentioned that the U.S. Supreme Court’s coming ruling on the Voting Rights Act “may also factor into our work as a committee.”
Redondo received derisive laughs from the audience after he said that he wasn’t “naïve to the fact that there is much public discourse around mid-decade redistricting. Let me be very clear — our work as a committee and as a legislative body is not directed by the work of other states, or partisan gamesmanship.”
Critics call the plan ‘illegal’
Before Thursday’s hearing, a coalition of voting rights, civil rights, and community organizations gathered at the Capitol to denounce the redistricting, saying it was being done for clear partisan advantage.
“The only reason this is happening is because Republicans and Democrats across the country are redrawing maps to get their party more seats in Congress in next year’s election. That’s illegal in Florida. Floridians overwhelmingly rejected partisan redistricting 15 years ago, and they still reject it today,” said Amy Keith, Florida executive director with Common Cause, in a written statement.
“The number one issue facing Floridians is our affordability crisis. Legislators should be focused on that. Playing with map rigging is a waste of time and a sign they won’t put Floridians first.”
“Florida’s governor and legislative leaders are attempting something unprecedented, dangerous, and fundamentally undemocratic: a mid-decade redistricting process designed to tip the scales of political power and weaken the voice of everyday Floridians,” added Genesis Robinson, executive director with Equal Ground.
Republicans now hold 20 of Florida’s 28 seats in Congress.
This report is republished today in Tropic Press with permission of Florida Phoenix, a Tallahassee-based non-profit news service. For more from Florida Phoenix, you can check out its website here.
Related:
Florida Democratic House leader calls plan to redraw congressional map ‘illegal’
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The Republican party- fighting for redistricting everywhere because they notoriously are advocates for equal representation for all Americans and not bonus representation for the select few. Thanks GOP. Instead of working on affordability crisis they'll spend the next week scribbling on maps with red crayons
What a mess.