Florida special session: Governor’s congressional map push sparks debate

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The spotlight is turning to Florida ahead of a special session that will decide the fate of a new Congressional map that Republicans hope will net several seats for their party in November's midterm elections.

On Tuesday night, Virginia voters approved a new map that could help Democrats gain four seats in Congress.

But the effort in Florida is less clear, because of political realities and parameters set by Florida's voters in the state Constitution.

What they're saying:

"Our message to Florida Republicans is F around and find out," said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Standing next to a poster with a batch of Republican seats his party would like to target in Florida, Jeffries dared Gov. DeSantis to go through with his push to redraw Florida's congressional seats mid-decade.

"If they go down the road of a DeSantis Dummymander," he said, "the Republicans (will) dummymander their way into the minority before a single vote is cast."

The backstory:

The current map has 20 Republicans and eight Democrats representing Florida.

But the governor has argued that the state was unfairly deprived of up to three seats in the 2020 census.

He will submit a new map to lawmakers next week.

The problem for Republican partisans is the constitutional language Floridians approved in 2010.

"No apportionment plan or individual district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent."

Governor DeSantis discussed the effort publicly during a press conference in Tampa last year.

"They're not allowed to use the partisan data, they have to just draw, and they will do that, that's what our current map is."

Dig deeper:

But with suspicion that a Florida re-draw is politically motivated, Jeffries is making the point that by pulling Republican voters into Democratic districts, the districts those voters were in will unavoidably get tougher for the current Republican occupants.

In an environment where Dems have racked up wins in special elections since President Trump took over, is it a recipe to unwittingly hand Democrats even more seats?

"Florida certainly has moved very strongly to Republicans over the last several years," said Kyle Kondik of the Center for Politics. "But Republicans in the state also have to be careful that this map is, they have to assume that it's going to be stress tested by a difficult environment in 2026."

And then there's the question of legality.

Experts say that there's no question the Florida maps will be questioned in court, with advocates arguing that the political context is plainly obvious.

This all started in Texas, with Trump unabashedly pushing for more Republican districts to be drawn.

"We have never done mid-decade redistricting in the state of Florida," said State Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa). "The only reason that the Republicans started talking about this was because Donald Trump wanted them to."

What's next:

The state senate is waiting for the governor to submit new maps to be debated during a special session on Tuesday.