TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — On Tuesday, during a news conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expects the Florida Legislature to pass a new map on congressional redistricting in the next “couple of weeks.”
On Wednesday, a group of Florida Democrats held a news conference to denounce Florida Republicans’ push for a political redistricting plan.
Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, said Republicans are determined to manipulate midterm control of the House.
“Republicans are too busy rigging the rules to help themselves,” Fried said. “This illegal partisan redistricting scheme to rig the maps is simply about placating Donald Trump and protecting GOP power.”
The Florida Constitution bans redistricting for partisan gain.
“The excuses keep shifting as to why this is happening,” Florida Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith said. “First, it’s, ‘Oh well, we have to respond to a Supreme Court ruling that never came.’ Then it was, ‘we have to redraw the maps because we’ve seen population changes.’”
Florida Rep. Christine Hunschofsky also questioned the motive.
“We have no data on which to support redrawing any maps,” Hunschofsky said.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who raised more than $22 million for the Florida governor’s race, supports mid-decade redistricting.
The political maps are redrawn every decade after the U.S. Census, but after President Donald Trump pushed for mid-decade redistricting in Texas last year.
“You have California and Virginia responding to Texas, and we’ve been watching all of this kind of happen in Florida, and because of what now has been done in Virginia , now Florida needs to respond,” Donalds said.
Virginia voters decide on Tuesday on a Democratic redistricting plan. In Florida, the current map includes 20 Republicans and eight Democrats
DeSantis said the special session on mid-decade redistricting may not start on April 20.
“The reason they are hedging is because they need more time to find new excuses to make what’s happening look less illegal,” Smith said.
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