Florida looks to join Trump's redistricting push
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President Trump's call for a mid-decade redistricting may soon be answered in Florida.
Why it matters: Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez told lawmakers last week that he will create a select committee to consider drafting a new congressional map — and Gov. Ron DeSantis supports the effort, too.
Catch up quick: Trump has applied intense pressure on his party to redistrict in its favor, initially with an eye on "five seats" in Texas. But the fight has spilled over to other states, including Democratic-led ones looking to counter.
- Florida Republicans hold 20 of the state's 28 congressional seats, thanks to a map the DeSantis administration drew up that erased a majority-Black district and was recently upheld by the state Supreme Court.
Between the lines: There doesn't seem to be much that Florida's governor and House speaker see eye-to-eye on these days — even clashing over Republican staples like fiscal restraint and immigration.
- Trump's redistricting push, however, seems to have them holding hands. Senate President Ben Albritton, for his part, is mum on the issue, casting doubt on whether the upper chamber will back the effort or let it stall.
What they're saying: DeSantis framed the effort as a response to the state's population growth.
- Perez pointed to the state Supreme Court decision questioning a voter-approved amendment barring districts that diminish the ability of minorities to "elect representatives of their choice."
The other side: "This is corruption, plain and simple," the Florida Democratic Party said in a statement. "Congressional maps are drawn once a decade, after a Federal census, not when a political party is afraid of losing power."
The big picture: Mid-decade redistricting in Florida isn't exactly unusual; over the last 50 years, courts have ordered new maps when existing districts were found to be unconstitutional.
- But "to my knowledge, at least in the modern political era, we have never had the legislature redraw the lines just for a partisan advantage," says Aubrey Jewett, a University of Central Florida political science professor.
- He tells Axios that DeSantis and Perez have been "very careful" in their remarks to avoid characterizing the effort that way.