Republicans already hold 20 of Florida’s 28 U.S. House seats. New voting districts signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis after a swift two-day special legislative session could improve the GOP’s chances to win four additional seats in the November elections.
Florida’s Legislature approved the new House map on April 29 — the same day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Louisiana district had been designed specifically to favor only black voters. Since then, several Southern states have take steps to eliminate districts designed solely to favor black voters who tend to vote for Democrats.
Congressional districts typically are redrawn once a decade, after each census, to rebalance populations. But since Trump urged mid-decade redistricting last year, Republicans think they could gain as many as 15 seats from new House maps in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama. Democrats, meanwhile, think they could gain six seats from new maps in California and Utah.
Democrats had counted on winning up to four additional seats in Virginia. But the Virginia Supreme Court last week struck down a Democratic redistricting plan, ruling the legislature violated procedural requirements when placing it on the ballot.
