The Florida legislature on Tuesday advanced a congressional redistricting proposal by Gov. Ron DeSantis that would potentially add four Republican congressional seats during the upcoming November midterm elections, according to media reports.
Democrats have alleged that the new congressional map would be illegal because it pandered to racial gerrymandering of voting districts, which they said was a violation of a provision of the Fair Districts Amendments that says "no district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent."
However, an attorney representing DeSantis said Tuesday that the proposed congressional redistricting map he presented to the legislature is constitutional because federal law supersedes language in the 2010 Fair District Amendments.
In addition, the governor's office insists a part of the Fair Districts Amendments is unconstitutional and is the reason the governor does not need to abide by it. That provision says that "districts shall not be drawn with the result or intent of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice."
The new redistricting map could change the political map to heavily favor Republicans, allowing them to flip four seats currently held by Democrats. This would increase the Republican majority in Florida from 20 to 24 seats (out of 28), reducing Democrats to only four.
The proposed congressional map is scheduled to go to the floor of both the House and Senate chambers of the Florida legislature on Wednesday.
Texas was the first state to redraw its congressional map to add potentially five Republican seats, after President Donald Trump encouraged Republican states to add more congressional seats in a bid to hold on to Republican control of both the US House and Senate during the November midterm elections.
The state of California countered by passing a voter-approved plan that would potentially add five Democratic seats during the upcoming midterms.
The states of Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio subsequently redrew their congressional maps to add four more Republican seats.
Virginia voters passed a new redistricting map last week that would potentially add four new Democratic congressional seats. However, the certification of those results is on hold until the State Supreme Court rules on the legality of the newly redrawn map.
