Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday called a special legislative session in April to redraw congressional districts, as Republicans seek to maintain control of the U.S. House in this year’s elections.
With Florida’s regular 60-day session starting next week, DeSantis called the special session for the week of April 20, at least in part to give the U.S. Supreme Court time to rule in a pending Louisiana redistricting case. The DeSantis administration also rescheduled a qualifying period for Florida congressional candidates.
“I know there’s a lot of people that are excited in both the (Florida) House and the Senate to be able to do it (redraw the districts). So, they’re going to get their chance to do it,” DeSantis said during an appearance in Steinhatchee. “But realistically, you can’t do it now. The Supreme Court hasn’t ruled. So, we’ve got to give some time for that.”
The call came after the Florida House, whose leaders have clashed with DeSantis on a variety of issues during the past year, started a redistricting review. Redrawing lines in the middle of the decade would be highly unusual, as redistricting traditionally occurs after the U.S. census is released.
Amelia Angleton, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, said in an email that the House was “made aware of the (special session) proclamation this morning.”
Senate President Ben Albritton, a Wauchula Republican who had previously expressed support for delaying redistricting until after the regular session, said in a memo to senators Wednesday that there is “no ongoing work regarding mid-decade redistricting taking place in the Senate at this time. I’ll continue to monitor legal developments and will keep you updated.”
President Donald Trump has pushed several Republican-controlled states to redraw districts in advance of the 2026 elections. Democratic-dominated California has responded with its own redistricting effort.
Democrats, who are far outnumbered by Republicans in the Florida House and Senate, and groups such as the League of Women Voters of Florida have warned that a mid-decade redistricting process would lead to costly litigation. Such litigation likely would focus, at least in part, on 2010 state constitutional amendments — known as the Fair Districts amendments — that created standards for redistricting.
“Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment strictly prohibits any maps from being drawn for partisan reasons, and regardless of any bluster from the governor’s office, the only reason we’re having this unprecedented conversation about drawing new maps is because Donald Trump demanded it,” state Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman, D-Boca Raton, said in a statement.
Lawmakers will start the regular session on Tuesday, and it is scheduled to end March 13.
DeSantis, who said he also might seek a special session to address his priority of cutting property taxes, has said he expects the U.S. Supreme Court in the Louisiana case to make changes related to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That could help bolster efforts to redraw districts. The case, Louisiana v. Callais, involves issues about the creation of two majority-Black districts and the Voting Rights Act.
Wednesday’s proclamation for the special session said “the Legislature should wait as long as is feasible for conducting the 2026 elections before redrawing Florida’s congressional district boundaries in order to take advantage of any further guidance from the United States Supreme Court, which is expected in early 2026, on the use of race in drawing electoral districts.”
DeSantis also contends new congressional district lines would better reflect Florida’s increased population since the 2020 census was conducted.
But state House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said the governor’s goal is to draw maps that favor Republicans, who already hold 20 of the state’s 28 congressional seats.
“Florida’s government should not be rigging elections. That’s what they do in places like Cuba and Venezuela, not America,” Driskell said in a conference call with reporters. “This is a cynical swamp-like behavior that makes people hate politics.”
In conjunction with DeSantis’ special-session proclamation, Secretary of State Cord Byrd issued a separate directive to county elections supervisors that, in part, moved back the congressional-candidate qualifying period, which had been scheduled the week of April 20. It was moved back to June 8 to June 12, the same qualifying period for candidates seeking state offices.
As part of the regular post-census redistricting process in 2022, DeSantis pressured lawmakers to revamp North Florida’s Congressional District 5, which in the past stretched from Jacksonville to west of Tallahassee and elected Black Democrat Al Lawson. Lawmakers redrew the district in the Jacksonville area, with Republicans then winning it and all other North Florida districts.
DeSantis argued that keeping the previous design of the district would have been an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Voting-rights groups challenged the constitutionality of the redrawn district, but the Florida Supreme Court upheld it.
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Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
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