DeSantis releases new congressional map for Florida, favoring Republicans

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday released a redistricting proposal that could give the Republican Party four more seats in Congress.

His plan, released to Fox News before it was sent to lawmakers, could leave Tampa Bay without any Democratic seats and South Florida with fewer left-leaning seats.

Only four seats out of Florida’s 28 — District 10 in Central Florida, and Districts 23, 20 and 24 in South Florida — would lean in favor of Democrats, according to the proposal from the governor’s office. The map his office released is colored according to political party.

The governor’s proposal comes amid a national redistricting battle initiated by President Donald Trump, who last summer started pushing red states to redraw their maps and keep GOP control of Congress.

Some left-leaning states retaliated, and both parties are at about where they started before about half a dozen states created new maps.

Florida’s proposal, if passed, could tip those scales.

Florida lawmakers are set to vote this week on the proposal during a special session called by DeSantis. Unlike in some other states, the map does not have to go in front of voters for approval.

Florida’s rules

Opponents say DeSantis’ plan flies in the face of Florida’s ban on partisan gerrymandering, which more than 60% of Florida voters supported and the state adopted into its constitution in 2010.

“It is illegal, plain and simple,” Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said.

In discussing redistricting, DeSantis has avoided citing politics as a motivating factor. But Driskell said DeSantis releasing the map first to Fox News “shows this is just about giving red meat to his base.”

In the Fox News article, DeSantis also cites the state’s 1.5 million Republican voter advantage and says his proposal “more fairly represents the makeup of Florida today.”

DeSantis first started pushing for redistricting last summer as Trump began asking friendly states to help him keep a GOP majority.

Though Florida bans partisan redistricting, the governor’s office on Monday suggested that it doesn’t need to follow the Fair Districts Amendment.

The Fair Districts language says that redistricting can’t be done to favor a political party or an incumbent and can’t be done to deny equal opportunity to racial and language minorities.

The governor’s office, in drawing the map, made “no attempt to adhere to the race-based requirements,” according to a memo sent to lawmakers from DeSantis’ general counsel, David Axelman.

Axelman argued that those requirements are unconstitutional. He said that the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to say the same in a pending Voting Rights Act case.

If one part of the Fair Districts Amendment is unconstitutional, Axelman argued the whole thing has to come down — including the prohibition on political gerrymandering.

“The [Fair Districts Amendment] was sold to voters as a package,” Axelman said. “And because one part is unconstitutional, there’s little reason to think that voters would have approved the remaining parts by themselves.”

Genesis Robinson, the executive director of the left-aligned group Equal Ground, said the governor’s plan is a “violation of the Fair Districts Amendment, which still exists.”

Robinson said DeSantis can’t unilaterally decide to disregard part of the constitution.

“I think it should unnerve every Floridian that their governor is refusing to follow the law of the land, of this state,” Robinson said.

The map

The governor’s proposal for mid-cycle redistricting would slice up Tampa Bay.

Florida’s 13th Congressional District — which now includes most of Pinellas County — would include a portion of western Pasco County starting around Holiday and running south through Pinellas Park, including the north part of St. Petersburg.

Much of St. Petersburg, including the city’s downtown and neighborhoods to the south, would become part of Florida’s 16th Congressional District, which would include parts of Manatee and Polk counties and rural DeSoto and Hardee counties.

Florida’s 14th Congressional District would include South Tampa and parts of eastern Hillsborough County, along with Brandon and Plant City.

Temple Terrace and parts of East Tampa would be part of Florida’s 15th District, which would include chunks of Pasco, Hernando and Citrus County.

Florida’s 12th Congressional District would include parts of West Tampa, including Seminole Heights, and expand north to include Carrollwood, Lutz and New Port Richey.

Other districts in Florida also would take on long stretches, including Congressional District 22. Under the governor’s proposal, both Weston and Parkland in Broward County would be combined with southern Collier County.

Some residents of Coral Springs, the neighboring city of Parkland, would be included in that district. Others would have a different representative.

Benjamin Schneer, an associate professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, said it’s generally unusual to combine such disparate communities in one district.

“But of course, when there are extreme gerrymanders, we see departures from that,” he said.

The political and legal stakes

Ahead of DeSantis releasing his proposal, some members of Florida’s Republican congressional delegation warned that redrawing could backfire and leave them vulnerable.

U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Miami Republican, last month told Punchbowl News that lawmakers should take heed of the special state legislative elections held earlier this year, in which Democrats flipped two Republican seats.

Republican Party of Florida Chairperson Evan Power — who is running for the congressional district encompassing Tallahassee — shrugged off concerns, saying Floridians have shown they will vote for Republicans.

Power also dismissed criticism about how the maps were released — to Fox News, with the party advantage highlighted for each district.

“The optics are going to be the optics no matter what we do,” he said.

The new, aggressive map could risk a couple of competitive seats if voters swing left compared to the last election.

While 24 of the proposed districts voted for Trump in 2024, two of those did not in the election prior. And another three leaned red in 2020 by less than 3 percentage points.

One of the possible competitive seats would be the proposed 14th District, in Tampa Bay.

Trump won the area, which would include South Tampa, Town ’N Country and the Brandon suburbs, by 11 points in 2024 but by 3 in 2020.

But Schneer said even if Democrats do well under the map, it could leave them at about where they stand now. Democrats currently hold eight of Florida’s 28 seats.

If lawmakers approve DeSantis’ map, a legal fight is all but inevitable.

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday said Florida’s map was a blatant violation of Florida’s constitution and the U.S. Constitution, saying it targets minority communities.

“See you in Court,” Jeffries said in a statement.

Christopher Kenny, the co-founder of the Algorithm-Assisted Redistricting Methodology Project, said districts that split up communities are sure to be targets of lawsuits moving forward.

Florida’s constitution says that districts shall “where feasible, utilize existing political and geographical boundaries.” Kenny said plaintiffs may try to show that Florida unnecessarily split up communities where it didn’t have to.

But such a legal battle could take years to play out, meaning DeSantis’ map may be in place for the 2026 midterm elections regardless.

Herald/Times reporter Lawrence Mower and Tampa Bay Times data editor Langston Taylor contributed to this report.

This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 11:12 AM.