Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a special legislative session on congressional redistricting will run from April 20th to April 24th during a press conference at Sea Hag Marina in Steinhatchee this week. The governor foreshadowed his intention to call for a special session on redistricting in an exclusive interview with The Floridian in December.
"I am going to issue a proclamation to convene a special session of the Florida Legislature to do redistricting of the congressional map in the state of Florida," DeSantis said. "We are going to do it in the later part of April, partially because there's a Supreme Court decision that's going to affect the validity of some of these districts nationwide, including some of the districts in the state of Florida."
"We also need to see how our population has changed so much in the last four or five years. We need to get a portion properly, and people deserve equal representation," DeSantis continued. "We look forward to being able to work with the legislature to get that across the finish line."
The governor issued his proclamation by executive order.
"The Legislature should redraw Florida’s congressional district boundaries in light of the recent legal developments referenced above and in the interest of making further improvements to the congressional districts based upon traditional redistricting principles," the proclamation says.
As mentioned, a current Supreme Court ruling, Louisiana v. Callais, is currently being litigated on whether Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (racial gerrymandering) violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which, in turn, could affect Florida's plan for its own congressional maps.
"The Legislature should wait as long as feasible for conducting the 2026 elections before redrawing Florida’s congressional district boundaries in order to take advantage of any further guidance from the United States Supreme Court, which is expected in early 2026, on the use of race in drawing electoral districts," the proclamation continues.
In September, House Speaker Danny Perez announced that 11 representatives would serve on a select committee to redraw Florida's congressional map, which already heavily favors state Republicans.
Rep. Mike Redondo (R-Miami) was named chairman of the Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting, which includes seven other Republicans and three Democrats.
Congressional redistricting has been a major agenda item for the GOP as they hope to maintain control of the House ahead of the 2026 midterm elections from Democrats. Florida's move, along with other states, could help President Donald Trump pass key legislative items as he approaches his final two years in office and also stop him from becoming a lame-duck president.
Florida's special session on congressional redistricting will be held after the state's regular legislative session, which begins on Jan. 13 and ends on Mar. 13.
