Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez announced that a Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting has been created amid Texas’ mid-decade redistricting effort.
“As many of you are aware, there are national conversations ongoing in other states related to midterm redistricting,” a memo reads, adding that a recent Florida Supreme Court decision “raises important and distinct questions about the applicability and interpretation of certain provisions of the so-called ‘Fair Districts’ provisions of the Florida Constitution and their intersection with Federal law.”
Perez noted that the state does “not have the capacity to engage in the full redistricting process experienced during the 2020-2022 term,” explaining that Florida will instead “focus our inquiry on the Congressional map, which was the subject of the recent Florida Supreme Court case, and any relevant legal questions.”
“To that end, I am creating a Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting,” Perez wrote.
Although Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) redrew congressional lines following the 2020 census, the governor said this week, as per The Hill, “I think if you look at that Florida Supreme Court analysis, there may be more defects that need to be remedied apart from what we’ve already done.”
“I also think the way the population has shifted around Florida just since the census was done in 2020, I think the state was malapportioned,” he said. “So I do think it would be appropriate to do a redistricting here in the mid-decade.”
Appearing alongside President Trump for a tour of Alligator Alcatraz, DeSantis told reporters, “I would love for them to redo the census for 2026,” adding, “My legislature, we’ll redistrict those lines, we’ll get it to where it’s fair. But as [it] is right now, this country is not fairly apportioned. I’ve got so many more millions of people in Florida that have representation because of that flawed Census.”
