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Florida GOP legislature sends new House map, netting party up to 4 seats, to DeSantis for signature

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by Caroline Vakil - 04/29/26 3:06 PM ET

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by Caroline Vakil - 04/29/26 3:06 PM ET

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The GOP-controlled Florida legislature passed a new set of Republican-favored congressional lines proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday as state lawmakers look to fast-track a new House map as the midterms approach.

Florida currently has a 20-8 Republican edge in its congressional delegation, but the new map that DeSantis is proposing aims to create a 24-4 GOP advantage. The House map advanced out of committees in both the Florida Senate and Florida House Tuesday — just hours after lawmakers convened for the start of their special session.

The full Florida Senate and Florida House each voted on Wednesday to pass the congressional lines, and the map will now head to DeSantis’s desk for his swift signature. The Senate passed the map 21-7 Wednesday afternoon.

The Florida governor is seeking to pass the new House map before the midterms in an effort to give Republicans more pickup opportunities in Congress. The Sunshine State represents the last chance for GOP redistricting before November.

Dave Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst at the nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report, suggested that Florida Democratic Reps. Kathy Castor, Darren Soto, Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are the most endangered should the new map be put in place ahead of November.

Some political observers, however, believe DeSantis may be more likely to pick up three seats, if the map is approved.

Still, congressional lines are all but expected to be litigated by Democrats, who have questioned the legality of the maps.

The state Constitution has clear anti-partisan gerrymandering language and a proposal that the governor’s office first shared with Fox News Digital notably showed a blue and red color-coded map, raising questions over the political impartiality of the lines.

The Supreme Court earlier Wednesday struck down a Louisiana congressional map that added a second majority-Black district in a 6-3 decision that will have huge impacts on the Voting Rights Act and future redistricting efforts.

“Called this one month ago,” DeSantis wrote on social media after the ruling was announced. “The decision implicates a district in [Florida] — the legal infirmities of which have been corrected in the newly-drawn (and soon to be enacted) map.”

DeSantis’ legal team has argued that considering race in redistricting — which is included in Florida’s Constitution — is unconstitutional. The governor’s office has suggested that the Voting Rights Act decision from the Supreme Court would invalidate this language in the Florida constitution.

And, given the consideration of race in redistricting was a part of a larger constitutional amendment that Florida voters passed in 2010, DeSantis’s counsel argued the rest of the language voters approved — including barring political gerrymandering — would likely also get tossed out.

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