Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to redraw Florida’s congressional map has put the state’s Republican representatives in an awkward spot: defending an openly partisan gerrymander that could put some of their own seats at risk.
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But if Florida’s Republicans in Congress are worried that DeSantis has stretched the map too thin, they’re keeping those concerns to themselves.
“My district stayed the same. Not bad, right?” Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar R-Fla., who could be at risk of losing her seat in this fall’s midterms, told reporters hours after the map became public. “I’m used to those lines, so, I’m happy.”
As DeSantis tries to pack the state’s Democrats into just four of the 28 congressional districts — up from a map where the breakdown is already 20-8 in favor of the GOP — Republicans are claiming this openly partisan game has nothing to do with politics.
Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., told MS NOW to look at the new districts that were drawn.
“They are not gerrymandered like the ones in Virginia,” Rutherford said.
Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., also claimed that the new Florida map wasn’t a gerrymander to help Republicans, scoffing that “we don’t do that in Florida.”
“We don’t redistrict based on partisan advantage,” Fine claimed.
Never mind that DeSantis’ own map drawer — Jason Poreda, a senior analyst in the governor’s office — testified Tuesday before the Florida state Senate that he took partisan splits into account.
“Partisan or electoral performance was a consideration,” Poreda said.
Of course, opponents in Florida told MS NOW it’s laughable to argue that politics isn’t the end goal of DeS antis’ map.
“To try and explain this as anything other than partisan is absolutely foolish,” said Genesis Robinson, executive director of Equal Ground, an organization opposing the new map and focused on building Black political power in Florida. “The voters of Florida are sophisticated enough to see a partisan power grab when it’s right there in front of them.”
Other Republicans were also more transparent about DeSantis’ political goals.
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who is facing a potentially difficult reelection path due to allegations of misconduct, said DeSantis’ new map was just a response to Florida getting stiffed in the apportionment of Representatives from the Census. “The reality is that Texas and Florida was owed a seat in that last census survey. So I think what we’re doing is we’re kind of righting the ship, if you will,” Mills said.
Normal redistricting happens every 10 years after the Census. But mid-decade redistricting is a major factor these days, with courts often deciding maps and some statehouses and governors moving at their own whims.
Some Florida lawmakers tried to sidestep questions about the new map. Even Salazar noted that “I don’t control this process.”
“I never knew about it,” Salazar continued. “I didn’t know whether my lines were going to go up, down, to the sides, so I have no comments.”
Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., tried to take a similar approach, telling MS NOW that “the decision to redistrict is the purview of our state legislature.”
“It’s really not something that we engage in in Congress,” she said.
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But whe ther the lawmakers themselves have much of a say over the maps, they’re certainly affected by them.
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Before DeSantis presented his map, Florida Republicans in Congress had been warning that, if the GOP got too greedy, the new map could come back to haunt them.
“The legislature needs to be very cognizant of the fact that if they get too aggressive … you could put incumbent members at risk,” Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., told Politico in March.
Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., also told Politico at the time redistricting was a “slippery slope.”
“I’ve been around enough reapportionments to know it can come back and bite you,” Webster said.
Just a day after DeSantis released his new map, Webster announced his retirement at the end of this term. The plan moving in Tallahassee would cause Webster’s Orlando-area district to absorb part of the seat held by Democratic Rep. Darren Soto — including Sea World.
A spokesman in Webster’s office told MS NOW in an email Tuesday that “between making calls to House leadership, his team and the White House, I don’t think the congressman has even had an opportunity to go over the maps.”
“His decision is not due to redistricting. He intended and was actively running for reelection, but about a month ago his wife suffered a heart attack. Her health now requires him to be home more and given the demands of Congressional service, he cannot both care for her and serve well in DC,” the spokesman said.
Still, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was quick to warn that Republicans trying to spread out Democrats’ voters could hurt the GOP in a year where the left is seeing midterm momentum. Whether the impact could be as far reaching as Jeffries projected, however, remains to be seen.
“They are deep in the hole, and Florida is not going to make a meaningful difference as it relates to their efforts to rig the midterm elections. That effort has failed. It’s over,” Jeffries said. “And what the DeSantis dummymander might lead to in the first instance is that, based on our analysis of the map, there are anywhere between three and five additional seats that Democrats can pick up if we get a turnout that mirrors 2018 or 2020.”
For now, however, Democrats in Florida are just waiting to see if their political futures will be upended.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said there are three different districts he could run in if the map does become law. But he was also critical of the governor’s office for “saying the state constitution is unconstitutional — which is definitely a new one.”
Kevin Frey contributed to this report.
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