Florida lawmakers approved a major redrawing of the state’s 28 congressional districts Wednesday, a move that could help Republicans retain control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections.
The outcome was anticipated but still held much drama. The U.S. Supreme Court decision on a redistricting case out of Louisiana, which Gov. Ron DeSantis cited as the reason to redraw Florida’s districts, was released as lawmakers debated the new map.
The Senate paused to consider the ruling but the House plowed ahead, approving the redistricting plan (HB 1D) on an 83-28 vote over the vocal protest of Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, who decried the move with the help of a bullhorn as the votes were cast.
“It’s a violation of the constitution! I’m out of order but y’all are doing illegal things!” Nixon shouted just before the vote.
Rep. Hilary Cassel, a former Democrat who changed her party affiliation after the 2024 election, was the only House Republican to vote against the map.
In the Senate, Democrats also slammed the swift process – the map was drawn by DeSantis aides and first publicized by DeSantis’ office Monday – and what they claimed was the obvious intent to draw more GOP-leaning districts, in violation of Florida’s Fair District Amendment prohibiting partisan gerrymandering.
“The maps before us today were precisely what those amendments were designed to prevent,” said Sen. Daryl Rouson, D-Tampa.
But Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, the sponsor of the Senate version, defended the move, pointing to DeSantis’ desire to put forth a congressional map that doesn’t have districts drawn to favor racial groups.
The Senate vote was 21-17, with four Republicans – Sens. Alexis Calatayud of Miami, Ileana Garcia of Miami, Erin Grall of Vero Beach and Jennifer Bradley of Fleming Island, joining 12 Democrats and one no party affiliation senator voting against it.
Gaetz noted DeSantis’ legal case for redistricting, without a new census or court order requiring it, rests on his view the U.S. Supreme Court would prohibit racial gerrymandering and the Florida Fair Districts amendment was unenforceable.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision released during the debate blocked a Louisiana map with a new district drawn to give African-American voters a chance to elect their own candidate, but it stopped short of knocking down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act as DeSantis anticipated.
Gaetz defended DeSantis’ opposition to racial gerrymandering but said he disputes his outlook on the Fair Districts Amendment. The amendment, approved by voters in 2010, bars lawmakers from drawing districts to favor or disfavor incumbents or political parties and bars them from diminishing the voting power of racial or language minorities.
Just because the portion of the FDA concerning race is undercut doesn’t mean the entire amendment should be struck down as DeSantis’ attorneys have argued, Gaetz said. But he added that he doesn’t think the map was drawn with the intention to aid the GOP.
“I am not persuaded this map is beneficial to the Republican Party,” Gaetz said.
But DeSantis’ desire to draw new districts doesn’t mean the Legislature needs to comply, Democrats noted. The current districts are still intact and haven’t been struck down, they said.
“We don’t have a court order here,” said Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando. “We just have a black and white text of the constitution that tells us what the law is.”
Democrats raised several objections to the new map, including the national context in which it is happening. President Donald Trump started urging GOP-led states last year to redraw their maps to help Republicans retain control of the U.S. House.
Texas was the first to comply, and Democratic-led states responded, with California approving a map to help Democrats gain more seats. Virginia voters approved a new map last week designed to gain Democratic seats, but that map is under legal scrutiny in the courts there.
Florida’s new map appears destined for the courts, too. But the qualifying week for U.S. House races is less than six weeks away, leaving little time for courts to consider any legal challenge and knock down the new map.
Other criticisms leveled by Democrats centered on how some districts in Orlando, Tampa and South Florida, draw in vastly different communities in the same district.
For example, the Ybor area of Tampa is drawn in a district with Citrus County, a rural area three counties away from Tampa, Rouson noted.
But mostly Democrats vented frustration that Republicans, who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature and already have a 20-8 advantage in the U.S. House delegation, were slanting the lines to help their own party.
“You are destroying democracy with this vote, and the people of Florida deserve better,” House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said.
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This article appears in Apr. 23 – 29, 2026.