With arguments for a mid-decade redistricting that is virtually certain to send more Republicans to Congress from Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis started a multifaceted assault on the state’s congressional districts on Wednesday.
DeSantis also stated that South Florida, which is home to the majority of the state’s surviving Democrats in the Florida congressional delegation, is the area of the state he wants to focus on.
The Republican governor’s action coincides with nationwide, historic, and expanding attempts to redraw congressional districts. Texas first started working to meet President Donald Trump’s demand that congressional borders be drawn in a way that would send five more Republicans and five fewer Democrats to Washington.
California then took action to reduce the number of Republican districts by five and produce five more Democratic ones.
DeSantis now wants to join in.
The governor has stated time and again that he feels the Broward-Palm Beach County district, which is represented by U.S. Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, is unfairly drawn and ought to be altered.
He admitted that any changes to Cherfilus-McCormick’s district would also likely affect nearby congressional districts, such as the one that U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Broward-Palm Beach County, represents.
DeSantis did not provide the district number or name of Cherfilus-McCormick. However, he made it clear whose region he was referring to by describing its shape.
The ramifications of DeSantis’ remarks are evident, according to political scientist Sean Foreman of Barry University. He is laying the groundwork for Florida’s impending mid-decade redistricting. According to Foreman, he is outlining the requirements so that Republicans can defend the necessity of doing this in Florida.
Whether or not they have a reason, they will still do it. We’re keeping an eye on events in California, Texas, and other places. “We have a Republican majority Legislature, so it was only a matter of time until Florida joined the battle,” Foreman stated. This is in line with what we have observed in the past few years.
Among other things, DeSantis’ criticisms of the state’s congressional districts are noteworthy because he was primarily in charge of creating them three years prior. Republicans in the Legislature were instructed to accept a congressional district plan created by his office after he vetoed the original one. The Legislature did as it was told.
There are eight Democrats and twenty Republicans in the Florida delegation, according to that map. The Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties are home to five of the eight Democrats.
The governor spoke on the subject Wednesday at Palm Beach State College, which is located just west of Lake Worth Beach. He made the assertion that Florida should have received one additional congressional district and that the state was underrepresented following the 2000 Census.
Attorney General James Uthmeier, whom DeSantis brought along, went further in his arguments than the governor before being called to the platform to speak.
According to Uthmeier, there has been a “clear state effort for a long time to manipulate the Census and shift electoral power to blue states to sanctuary states.” He asserted that Democrats are angry about illegal immigration to the United States because they wanted those individuals to grow their population and win more congressional seats.
“They realized the jig is up, and they’re freaking out,” Uthmeier added. Deportations are impeding a long-standing strategy they had.
He provided no proof to support his claims. Uthmeier, the governor’s former chief of staff and one of the administrators of DeSantis’ failed bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was named attorney general by DeSantis earlier this year.
The map DeSantis signed three years ago featured Cherfilus-McCormick’s district, which was designed in the same way as it has been for decades with the express goal of virtually guaranteeing that voters would choose a Black legislator.
In order to increase the likelihood that a member of a minority group will win an election and bring a voice that would not otherwise be heard to the halls of Congress, congressional boundaries were created in accordance with amendments to the federal Voting Rights Act made in the middle of the 1980s.
Florida hadn’t sent a Black representative to the U.S. House since 1877, when the Reconstruction era following the Civil War came to a conclusion, until those changes were made in the 1992 redistricting.
That shouldn’t be permitted, according to DeSantis, and he hopes the US Supreme Court declares such districts unconstitutional. Additionally, he referenced a recent ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that upheld the current map provision, which removed a district in north Florida that had previously been designed to boost the likelihood that voters would elect a Black member of Congress.
The five-member majority of the state Supreme Court, which was composed entirely of DeSantis appointments, ruled 5-1.
Florida’s population has increased since the 2020 Census and has moved inside the state, according to DeSantis, which is another reason the state should redraw its congressional districts. DeSantis did not specify what criteria would be applied to create new districts based on population changes since then, as districts are created using Census data.
The creation of population figures for districts that will be utilized over the next ten years is a primary goal of the federal census.
Nikk Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, described DeSantis’ action as speculative, corrupt, and a total waste of public funds, calling it an immoral power grab.
In an attempt to make headlines a la Gavin Newsom, Ron is attempting to cause disruption in order to divert attention from his shortcomings, while Floridians are dealing with rising living expenses. She stated in a statement that Floridians should have leaders that prioritize safeguarding freedoms, improving education, and cutting costs rather than political theater.
The governor of California, Newsom, is leading his state’s opposition to Texas’ redistricting.
The director of communications for Cherfilus-McCormick chose not to comment.
This report was written by Abigail Hasebroock, a staff writer.
Anthony Man is a political writer who may be contacted at [email protected] and is also active on Facebook, Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky as @browardpolitics.
