House Speaker Mike Johnson pushes gerrymander prohibited by Florida Constitution

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) urged Florida lawmakers on April 22 to adopt a mid-decade gerrymander aimed at giving Republicans more seats in Congress. The Florida Constitution expressly prohibits political gerrymandering.

With the narrow GOP majority in Congress at risk in the 2026 midterm elections, Johnson was asked by a reporter if he would encourage Florida to change its congressional map. “Yes. Absolutely. Florida has the right and the intention to do it. And my view is that they should,” Johnson answered. “The Republican states are doing what they can do lawfully under their state laws. And in a state like California, Virginia, they had to defy their own constitutions to play a dishonest game.”

Since July 2025, President Donald Trump has been pressuring Republican legislators in GOP-controlled states to redraw their maps to create more Republican-leaning districts. “I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats,” he told CNBC on Aug 5. Lawmakers in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina complied, adopting more GOP-friendly congressional maps.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has called state lawmakers to Tallahassee for an April 28 special session to consider a new congressional map. “Our population has changed so much in the last four or five years,” he told reporters in January “We need to get apportioned properly, and people deserve equal representation.” Under the U.S. Constitution, all states must adopt new maps once every decade, after the national census; the next census is not scheduled until 2030.

In 2010, Florida voters adopted by a 62.9%-37.1% margin a constitutional amendment banning political and racial gerrymandering. The state constitution now says: “Congressional districts or districting plans may not be drawn to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party. Districts shall not be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice.”

“The President of the United States has called for redrawing congressional districts nationwide to benefit his party in the next election,” the nonpartisan good government group Common Cause Florida says on its website. “But let’s be perfectly clear: drawing voting maps for partisan gain is explicitly illegal in Florida. The people of Florida made it illegal when we passed the Fair Districts Amendment to the Florida Constitution.”

Unlike DeSantis and the legislatures in red states, California and Virginia lawmakers put their proposals for new maps — which Democratic leaders said were needed to level the playing field after the GOP’s map changes — before voters for their approval. A majority of voters in both states voted in favor of constitutional amendments authorizing temporary changes to the redistricting process.

A Johnson spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On April 11, Johnson campaigned against the Virginia restricting referendum, telling voters in the state: “You have the power to say no to this totally scandalous, unlawful, unconstitutional Democrat gerrymandering scheme that they’re trying to push on this state. You get to say no.”

In July 2025, he told CNN: “I’ll tell you that the redistricting is the responsibility, it’s the prerogative of the states, and so not really my lane. … I am confident that when it comes to these congressional seats, we can win any seat in any district in America, because we have a great story to tell in the midterm election. And I’m very bullish about the outcome, regardless of how the redistricting comes out.”