Florida lawmakers eye redistricting push: What to know about DeSantis’s House map

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) unveiled a new congressional map on Monday that looks to nab Republicans four extra seats in the House — just one day before state lawmakers are slated to meet for a redistricting special session.

Florida lawmakers are set to convene Tuesday to mull the mid-decade redistricting push and other legislative priorities, with the session seen as the last opportunity for Republicans to redraw congressional maps ahead of November.

Florida currently has a 20-8 Republican edge in its congressional delegation, but the new map aims to create a 24-4 majority for the party in the House, impacting Democrats in Tampa, Central Florida and South Florida. 

Some political observers, however, are skeptical that this math will hold up — and whether any approved maps would hold up in court due to expected Democratic litigation.

Here’s what to know as Florida lawmakers prepare to take up redistricting:

DeSantis seeks four more GOP seats

The Florida governor’s office first revealed its proposed House map to Fox News Digital. The new lines show four blue-coded House seats, one in Central Florida and three in South Florida, while the remaining districts are colored red for Republicans. 

The new lines look to eliminate Rep. Kathy Castor’s (D) Tampa-based seat and Rep. Darren Soto’s (D) seat in Central Florida. Rep. Maxwell Frost’s (D) district, meanwhile, is smaller in the proposed map.

Republicans also consolidated five South Florida Democrats’ districts into three, which would impact Reps. Jared Moskowitz, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Lois Frankel and Frederica Wilson as well as the district former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick represented. 

Dave Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst for the nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report, suggested on the social platform X that the lawmakers most endangered from the governor’s map include Soto, Castor, Moskowitz and Wasserman Schultz. 

The color-coding of DeSantis’s map is notable because the state constitution includes clear anti-gerrymandering language, meaning lawmakers can’t redraw election maps for partisan gain. The map that DeSantis’s office submitted to lawmakers is multicolor-coded. 

The proposed lines surprised some Republicans who expected the Florida governor to submit a more conservative map, offering the party between one and three seats if........

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