A newly approved Florida congressional map could eliminate up to four Democratic-held seats ahead of the November midterm elections, intensifying a nationwide redistricting fight.
Florida Republicans, who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature, passed the map on Wednesday over loud liberal opposition, sending it to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk. DeSantis is expected to sign the bill.
The redrawn districts target Democratic seats in the Tampa, Orlando, and South Florida areas, aiming to flip them to Republican control. Democrats currently hold seven of Florida’s 28 districts.
Under the plan, Florida Democratic Reps. Kathy Castor, Darren Soto, Jared Moskowitz, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz could face significantly tougher re-election fights.
If enacted, the map would reflect the Sunshine State’s broader political shift in recent years. Once a swing state that backed Barack Obama twice, Florida has moved decisively to the Right, with Republicans now holding a roughly 1.5 million-voter registration advantage.
“Florida got shortchanged in the 2020 Census, and we’ve been fighting for fair representation ever since,” DeSantis told Fox News Digital. “Drawing maps based on race, which is reflected in our current congressional districts, is unconstitutional and should be prohibited.”
The push to redraw Florida’s map coincides with a bombshell Supreme Court ruling sharply limiting the use of race in congressional redistricting.
In a 6-3 decision, the court struck down Louisiana’s map, which included two majority-black districts, as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Writing for the conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito said the Constitution generally forbids race-based line drawing absent a compelling justification.
Wednesday’s ruling clears the way for other states with majority-minority districts to change course. New maps in states including Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee could net Republicans as many as 12 seats in Congress, according to a New York Times analysis.
Democrats decried the decision as an attack on democracy, despite pursuing partisan gerrymandering in California and, more recently, Virginia.
“Now we’re now at a point where affirmative action is gone, diversity is gone, equity gone, inclusion gone, racial tolerance gone, the Voting Rights Act largely gone, but guess what, extremists, we’re still here, and we’re not going anywhere,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said.
Hakeem Jeffries: “We’re now at a point where affirmative action is gone, diversity is gone, equity is gone, inclusion is gone…” pic.twitter.com/4b9Bm7KNwy
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) April 29, 2026
Florida’s map is likely to face legal challenges. A provision in the state constitution effectively bars partisan gerrymandering, according to The New York Times. DeSantis has argued that recent court rulings from both the state and U.S. Supreme Court have laid the groundwork to uphold the maps.
The SCOTUS ruling also invalidates the below provisions of the FL Constitution requiring the use of race in redistricting:
”…districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in… https://t.co/IqrLoWdO0L
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) April 29, 2026
Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling did not address political gerrymandering.
“So at least from a federal constitutional perspective, the federal constitution isn’t going to have anything to say about political gerrymanders,” Smith said in an interview with The Daily Wire.
“That’s going to be left to the states and really depend on what each state’s laws in each state’s constitution says about how their state legislatures draw their legislative maps,” he added.