Trump orders, DeSantis delivers: Florida dirty trick will help Republicans, Trump admin to win the 2026 midterms
Florida – Florida Republicans are moving ahead with a controversial plan to redraw the state’s congressional map before the 2026 midterm elections. Critics say this is an obvious attempt to tighten the GOP’s hold on power.
On Thursday, Daniel Perez, the Republican Speaker of the Florida House, announced the formation of a Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting. This was the official start of the process. The TB Times obtained a memo from Perez that didn’t say exactly what changes may be made, but his decision comes as Texas Republicans push hard for a mid-decade redistricting plan that might give them five extra congressional seats. President Donald Trump has told Texas lawmakers to do more, saying that Republicans “deserve” those wins in order to take control of the House next year.
It seems that Florida’s political leaders are following that example. Governor Ron DeSantis (R), whose administration drew the state’s current map in 2022, has already said he supports looking at district lines again before the end of the decade. DeSantis said at a news conference last week that the notion was “obviously something that we’re looking at very seriously.” He said that the state’s population has changed a lot since the 2020 census, which has made districts “malapportioned.”
With the current map, Republicans have a strong 20–8 lead in Florida’s 28-member congressional delegation. Voting rights advocates strongly opposed the current district lines, which were pushed through by DeSantis and upheld by the Florida Supreme Court in July 2025. They said that the borders got away of a majority-Black district in North Florida. Opponents argue that mid-cycle redistricting will simply make the party imbalance worse and make it harder for minorities to be represented.
Traditionally, states redraw congressional maps once every ten years after the census. Mid-decade changes are rare and often face legal challenges. But Florida Republicans are pointing to the state’s booming population and migration trends as justification for moving ahead.
“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.
It is still unclear if the measure will pass through both houses of the state legislature. So far, Florida Senate President Ben Albritton (R) has not said if the Senate would endorse new maps. This leaves the process at an early and politically unstable stage.
But Democrats are not holding back when they criticize. State Senator Shevrin Jones (D) said that the governor and Republican leaders were using redistricting to keep their power instead of making sure that everyone had a fair chance to vote.
“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.
If Florida does go ahead with new maps, they will probably face judicial challenges right away. This will add to the growing list of states where mid-cycle redistricting is being utilized as a political weapon. The struggle over district borders in Florida could become one of the most closely watched and hotly contested political battles in the country as the 2026 midterm elections approach and the balance of power in Congress is at stake.
