DeSantis escalates clash with Jeffries over Florida redistricting: ‘Bring it on’

Tensions over Florida’s redistricting push escalated on Friday, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) daring House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to “bring it on” after Jeffries offered a stern warning to Republicans in the state.

“Go ahead, make my day, bring it on,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Jacksonville. “I would like nothing better than to have him campaigning all across Florida.”

“We are not going to be cowed by threats from some machine politician from Brooklyn,” the governor added. “It doesn’t work that way down here. That’s not how we roll.”

The two politicians have traded barbs ahead of a special session in the Florida Legislature next week on redistricting. Republicans are looking to push forward a GOP-friendly map in hopes of countering Democratic gains in Virginia.  

Voters in the Old Dominion State approved a referendum on Tuesday, allowing congressional lines to be redrawn to favor Democrats in 10 out of 11 House districts. The party currently holds a 6-5 advantage in the commonwealth’s congressional delegation.

The outcome was celebrated by Jeffries, who quickly turned his attention to the Sunshine State. He threatened “maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time” if Republicans proceeded, labeling the push a “dummymander” that could ultimately backfire.

“Our message to Florida Republicans is, ‘F around and find out,’” Jeffries told reporters Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

A day earlier, the minority leader singled out eight Florida House seats currently held by Republicans that Democrats would “aggressively target” in a statement shared by Punchbowl News.  

Florida is widely seen as the GOP’s last opportunity to pick up additional seats before the November midterm elections, and DeSantis appeared confident on Friday that state lawmakers would “get the job done.”

But not all Republicans are convinced pushing ahead with drawing new maps is a good idea, with one Florida GOP operative telling The Hill that redistricting is “fraught with peril.”

Some pointed to recent Democratic victories across the state as well as the clear anti-gerrymandering language in the Florida’s constitution, arguing the risk could outweigh the potential reward.

“I don’t feel great about it,” another GOP consultant with a close relationship to DeSantis and the legislature told The Hill when asked about the redistricting session.

Republicans, who are trying to cling to a razor-thin majority in the House, have already passed new maps in Texas, North Carolina and Missouri. Democrats have picked up seats after redrawing lines in California and from a court-ordered map in Utah.

The redistricting tit-for-tat began last year with a push from President Trump to overhaul maps in Texas to gain five additional GOP seats in the House.

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