Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) unveiled a new congressional district map Monday that would shift the state’s House delegation from 20 Republicans and 8 Democrats to a 24-4 Republican advantage, and he’s calling a special legislative session Tuesday to get it done before November.
The map restructures four Democrat-held seats, redrawing boundaries in a way that would make those districts unwinnable for the party. DeSantis has convened the GOP-majority legislature in a special session beginning April 28 to approve the new lines.
“The state was shortchanged during the 2020 census,” DeSantis told Fox News, framing the move as a fight for “fair representation.”
Partisan gerrymandering is technically illegal under Florida law. The governor insisted the redistricting is not politically motivated.
Florida’s population has grown by nearly 1.9 million people since the 2020 census, and registered Republicans now outnumber Democrats by 1.5 million voters. As of 2026, the state has 5.54 million Republican registrants, 4.05 million Democrats, and 3.3 million voters with no party affiliation.
The new map comes directly in response to Virginia, where voters last week narrowly approved a Democrat-drawn redistricting plan that effectively erases the state’s Republican congressional representation. Under that map, 10 Democrats and just one Republican are projected to win House seats in November. Legal challenges from Republicans are pending.
DeSantis cited Virginia as justification for moving quickly in Florida, arguing states cannot unilaterally disarm when the other party is actively restructuring political geography.
Florida currently holds 28 House seats. The new configuration would make it one of the most lopsided GOP delegations in the country by raw numbers.
Republicans control the House by a narrow margin heading into the midterms. Democrats need a net gain of seats to retake the chamber, and their strategy has included encouraging redistricting where they hold power. Virginia’s move was seen as the opening salvo in that effort.
DeSantis had initially scheduled the legislative session earlier in April but postponed it. He denied the delay was tied to the outcome of Virginia’s redistricting vote.
Florida Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups are expected to mount legal challenges. Redistricting fights in Texas, Florida, and Virginia are all unfolding simultaneously as both parties race to lock in favorable maps before November ballots are set.
The Supreme Court on Monday separately upheld Texas’s Republican-drawn congressional map, rejecting a lower court’s finding that the map constituted an illegal racial gerrymander. That ruling strengthened the legal footing for Republican-drawn maps nationally.
