Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has requested the U.S. Commerce Department to make corrections to the 2020 U.S Census, which he says erroneously overcounted and undercounted the populations of 14 states, including Florida.
In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Uthmeier said the miscount cost Florida a second congressional seat and should be corrected ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
"When Biden took over in 2021, Florida was robbed of a Congressional seat and electoral vote that it deserved," Uthmeier said. "Florida is all-in to support President Trump’s call for a new census that corrects the deep-state manipulations that have benefited sanctuary states."
Specifically, Uthmeier said the 2020 census undercounted Florida’s population by 761,094 people when it only needed approximately 171,500 residents to gain an extra seat.
According to the attorney general, the undercount specifically cost the state a Congressional seat, electoral votes, and millions in federal funding. Uthmeier also noted that the Census Bureau admitted to a discount in its 2022 Post-Enumeration Survey.
To correct the mistake, Uthmeier pressed the Commerce Department to conduct a targeted re-enumeration in affected states, including Florida, before next year's midterm elections. He also asked Lutnick to immediately update federal funding formulas using the post-2022 survey data, which would properly distribute a fair share of taxpayer-generated monies to the state.
Uthmeier also emphasized a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing corrections for “serious errors” in census certificates. The corrections, under law, are handled by the Commerce Department.
Florida currently has 28 congressional seats, of which 20 are Republican controlled. President Donald Trump, along with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans, have looked to alter maps in Texas and Florida, respectively, in recent weeks.
Democrats have slammed the moves, calling them blatant abuse of power.
Adding to the redistricting debate, Trump also directed the Department of Commerce to create a new U.S. Census to exclude illegal aliens from the population count, to which the attorney general acknowledged in his request.
"By closing the border and calling for a new Census, President Trump took major steps to counter the left’s power grab," Uthmeier added. "Just like the immigration crisis, we are proposing solutions for a corrected Census to give Floridians the representation they deserve in Congress."
