The Florida state House on Wednesday advanced a new congressional map proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), giving Republicans four more seats they’ll likely win over Democrats.
The redistricting bill seeks to give Republicans a 24-4 advantage in the state, which is now represented in the U.S. House by 20 Republicans and seven Democrats. One seat is vacant after former Democratic congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned last week ahead of a sanctions hearing; she faced expulsion for campaign finance violations.
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The map is now headed to the Florida state Senate, where it will likely pass. Both chambers of the state legislature are controlled by Republicans. At least four state GOP senators have opposed the map, but for the measure to fail, it would need seven GOP defectors.
DeSantis pushed the Florida legislature to consider redrawing congressional district boundaries during a four-day special legislative session this week.
While redistricting was the primary purpose for the special session, the governor also wanted Republican lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide vaccine exemptions for children and regulate artificial intelligence at the state level. Shortly after the session started on Tuesday, though, Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez (R) blocked the two bills.
DeSantis and Perez have long feuded over certain policies, but they were aligned on adding four more Republican-friendly districts to the state ahead of the midterm elections.
The move came just over one week after Virginia passed a redistricting referendum that would likely give Democrats a 10-1 edge in the commonwealth. That measure is already being challenged in court.
The Virginia Supreme Court on Tuesday barred state officials from certifying the April 21 special election, thereby halting Democrats’ efforts to enact the new congressional map for now while the court weighs the legality of the vote.
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The Florida House’s 83-28 vote comes hours after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-based redistricting in Louisiana by narrowing a section of the Voting Rights Act that requires some states to create majority-minority districts, in which a racial minority is considered the majority of a district’s total population. In Florida, at least one of its redrawn districts was previously a Hispanic-majority area in the central part of the state.
Florida’s Constitution includes strict anti-gerrymandering provisions, so the new map may be challenged in court if it’s enacted.