“I think the state is malapportioned”: After Texas, Florida Gov. DeSantis plans controversial push to redraw congressional maps
Florida – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is drawing attention once again with a plan that could change the state’s political landscape before the 2026 midterm elections. Fresh off Republican-led redistricting efforts in Texas, DeSantis is now saying that Florida may soon do the same. Critics argue this is just a way to keep Republicans in power instead of dealing with population shifts.
DeSantis said recently that Florida’s current district lines ain’t right because the state’s population is changing. He said that a mid-cycle redistricting was needed because the population has been growing and moving since the 2020 census.
“I do think it would be appropriate to do a redistricting here in the mid-decade,” said DeSantis. “I also think the way the population has shifted around Florida, just since the census was done in 2020, I think the state is malapportioned,” said DeSantis.
Traditionally, congressional maps are redrawn once every ten years following the national census. Florida Republicans already have a strong 20-8 lead in the state’s congressional delegation. This is partly because of a redistricting design that DeSantis pushed through in 2022. This decision faced court challenges but was upheld. If the governor goes through with his latest plan, it would be another breach from long-standing political standards and might lead to a new round of lawsuits.
DeSantis’s comments come at the same time as Texas’s redistricting plans, where Republican leaders recently showed off a new congressional map that aims to add five more seats that lean Republican. The plan, which is said to have been influenced by former President Donald Trump, redraws districts to make some Democratic strongholds more friendly to Republicans. It purposefully hurts Democratic incumbents like Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez by moving them into districts that Trump won easily. At the same time, it opens up numerous new open-seat prospects for the GOP.
People are now looking at the Republican redistricting movement in Texas as a blueprint for other states, including Florida, to follow. Democrats are calling the trend a planned effort to change the lines of elections for political benefit.
“The governor is talking about redoing the census and redrawing the map because he didn’t get the political outcome that he wanted. This isn’t about fairness or accuracy. It’s about power,” said Florida State Senator Shevrin Jones, a vocal opponent of the proposed changes.
Democrats across the country are getting ready for legal fights. Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, has already spoken out against the Texas plan, saying that state leaders are trying to take control of the government for their own party. Jeffries is also likely to meet with Texas Democrats to plan a reaction. Democrats across the country are warning that similar redistricting initiatives, like DeSantis’s, might make it harder for people to get fair representation.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson downplayed concerns, expressing confidence in the GOP’s broader election prospects.
“I am confident that when it comes to these congressional seats, we can win any seat in any district in America, because we have a great story to tell in the midterm election. And I’m very bullish about the outcome, regardless of how the redistricting comes out.,” Johnson recently said.
The next official U.S. Census won’t happen until 2030, but Florida and other states are thinking about redrawing their maps early, so the political map going into the 2026 midterms may not be fixed in stone.
The debate over who gets to draw the lines and when is shaping up to be one of the most important fights of the next election cycle, as redistricting becomes a more and more aggressive strategy for both parties.
