Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced on Wednesday plans to push for a recount of the 2020 census, which would allow for the reconfiguration of Florida’s congressional districts.
DeSantis cited new data from the Census Bureau’s 2022 Post-Enumeration Survey, which revealed Florida was undercounted by nearly 3.5%, during a press conference alongside state Attorney General James Uthmeier. The attorney general said the bureau undercounted Florida’s population by around 700,000 people in the 2020 census, adding that the current congressional representation does not reflect its actual population, as the census negatively impacted the number of seats allocated to the state.
The two men are leading Florida in sending a letter to the bureau demanding that it “fix the problems with the census,” and the governor revealed the state is lobbying President Donald Trump on the matter as well. Trump recently called on the Commerce Department to begin work on a new census that excludes undocumented immigrants from the population count, a move that could boost Florida’s efforts to launch its own census recount.
“The attorney general told me he’s going to be willing to go up to Washington and talk to people in the Commerce Department to be able to get this right. I know President Trump has spoken about the need to fix the problems with the census,” DeSantis said.
Should the case be resolved according to their terms, the Florida legislature would take action on redistricting efforts to adjust for the revised census and add an extra House seat that would likely boost GOP political power. DeSantis said during remarks at Palm Beach State College that adding another congressional seat would also give Florida an additional vote in the Electoral College during presidential elections.
“We’ve had really significant growth and migration, and our congressional map should reflect that,” said DeSantis. “So this is something we are going to have to address as a state. I’ve spoken to some folks in the Florida legislature, and I think that there’s broad acknowledgement that this is something that is going to have to happen.”
Florida’s race toward redistricting comes as similar efforts in Texas seeking to boost the Republican Party’s margin of power in the House provoked outrage from Democrats, who then launched comparable plans in states such as California.
DeSantis and Uthmeier have defended redistricting efforts in Florida by accusing Democrats, including the Obama-backed National Democratic Redistricting Committee, of rigging more favorable district maps for the party after the 2020 census.
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but every state that got shortchanged was a Republican state and every state that got more (representatives) was a Democrat state,” DeSantis said. “That’s just the truth about how that Census was applied.”
Uthmeier added his conviction that “a deep state effort” has been undertaken to “manipulate the census and shift electoral power to blue states, to sanctuary states.”
Florida currently has 28 seats in the House of Representatives, made up of eight Democrats and 20 Republicans. A mid-decade redistricting effort to give the state another seat, while rare, would be legal, although it would likely invite significant pushback from Democrats.
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Congressional District 20, represented by Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), and comprises part of Palm Beach and Broward counties, could be one prime area for redistricting scrutiny.
DeSantis said McCormick’s district had been racially gerrymandered, telling reporters, “It’s the most irregularly shaped district on Florida’s map.” The political boundaries are currently legal under provisions in the Voting Rights Act, which allows for the creation of majority minority districts. However, the governor hopes the Supreme Court will strike down that provision in the next two months as it considers what critics view as a racial gerrymandering case in Louisiana and clear the way for redrawing the district.