FL Legislature Approves DeSantis Redistricting Map Designed For GOP Midterm Boost

The Florida Legislature has approved a new congressional map that will give Republicans an edge in the 2026 midterm elections.

The redistricting map was approved Wednesday along party lines, with it passing 83-28 in the House and 21-17 in the Senate, state records show.

The new redistricting map, designed to create four more GOP seats in the state, is expected to face legal challenges from Democrats.

“If it doesn’t scream illegal to you, it ought to just scream unfair and unjust,” Sen. Barbara Sharief, D-Miramar, said, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The map, created by Gov. Ron DeSantis, next heads to the governor’s desk for him to sign into law, which he said he’ll do quickly, according to CBS 12.

The vote came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act. In a 6-3 vote, the court ruled that Louisiana’s 2024 election map was “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander” because it created a second majority-Black congressional district in the state, NPR reported.

With that specific case heading to the nation’s highest court, as well as alleged “racial gerrymandering in South Florida,” DeSantis said during a Thursday news conference that it was the right time to present his updated redistricting map for Florida, Florida Phoenix reported.

• Also Read: Proposed FL Redistricting Map Could Create 4 More GOP Seats

“They had arguments in October and it basically was going to decide indirectly whether that district down there was viable, and I knew just from the posture of it that it was not going to be viable once that happened,” the governor said. “And so, in January, I called the special session and said we gotta do going to do it, we’re going to do it, and for other reasons, I mean, population growth, all of this other stuff. But we said that was going to happen. So then people were like, ‘Oh, well. They haven't ruled. How can you know? How can you know?’

“First of all, we knew,” DeSantis said. “It not only vindicated what we were doing. It compelled us to do what we were doing.”

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said on Tuesday, ahead of the final vote, that the party plans to file lawsuits because of the map’s passage, NPR reported.

"We are ready to not only challenge these maps with support from all of our Democratic coalition partners here in the state of Florida, across the country, the nation is watching what has happened here in the state of Florida, that democracy has fallen here in our state," she said.