Ron DeSantis proposes partisan gerrymander explicitly banned by Florida Constitution

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis released a proposal on April 27 for a new, redrawn map of Florida’s congressional districts, designed to help Republicans gain four additional House seats in the 2026 midterm elections and beyond. Experts say his proposed maps violate the 2010 Fair Districts Amendments, approved by Florida voters by a 63%-37% margin, which changed the Florida Constitution to explicitly ban intentionally partisan gerrymandering in legislative and congressional redistricting.

DeSantis sent Fox News a map of Florida depicting the proposed new maps, showing 24 GOP-leaning districts colored in red and four Democratic-leaning districts colored blue. “Florida got shortchanged in the 2020 Census, and we’ve been fighting for fair representation ever since. Our population has since grown dramatically, and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage. Drawing maps based on race, which is reflected in our current congressional districts, is unconstitutional and should be prohibited,” he told the network. “Our new map for 2026 makes good on my promise to conduct mid-decade redistricting, and it more fairly represents the makeup of Florida today.”

DeSantis’ general counsel David Axelman sent more detailed maps to the Florida House of Representatives and Senate, urging them to adopt the maps during a special session beginning on April 28. Republican Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton expect the map will be voted on on April 29, according to Newsweek.

“I had two reactions right off the bat,” Amy Keith, executive director of the nonpartisan good-government group Common Cause Florida, told the Florida Independent. “The first was that partisan gerrymandering is illegal in Florida and that that sure looks like someone’s trying to do some partisan gameplaying. And the second thing, I will tell you, from a personal perspective, is that I’m a voter in St. Petersburg myself, and I looked up the change to my district, and it did not look like that was drawn so that my community could be well represented at all. I mean, represented with communities that have very little in common with us.” 

“Here in Florida, we were heavily involved in the ‘Fair Districts’ campaign to add clear redistricting standards to the state Constitution. Those standards, which prohibit partisan gerrymandering, were passed by 63% of Florida voters in 2010,” Jessica Lowe-Minor, president of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Florida, told the Florida Independent in an email. “Since then, the League has continued to advocate on behalf of the state’s redistricting standards, and we speak to citizens’ groups regularly about this issue. Over and over again, voters tell us that they are tired of partisan gamesmanship, and recent polls show that a strong majority of Floridians oppose mid-decade redistricting. Despite what other states may do, Florida has an explicit prohibition on partisan mapmaking. This current redistricting effort does not, in our opinion, comply with the state’s Constitution, and we hope it will ultimately be rejected.”

An Emerson College poll released April 2 found that 56% of likely Florida voters believe that a mid-decade redraw of the state’s congressional districts is a bad idea — 65% of Democrats, 64% of independents, and 43% of Republicans. 

DeSantis’ move comes as President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson have pushed Republican-led states to change their congressional maps to help Republicans win more seats. Lawmakers in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina have already complied, adopting more GOP-friendly maps in 2025. 

Democratic lawmakers in California and Virginia responded by putting redistricting proposals, which they said were necessary 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.

But unlike in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina, Florida’s Constitution prohibits partisan redistricting.

“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,” says the text of the state constitution.

“I don’t know how you can argue a red and blue map released from the governor’s office doesn’t show some form of partisan intent,” an unnamed Florida Republican consultant told NBC News.

Axelman argued in a memo to the Legislature that the 2010 Fair Districts Amendments are null and void, citing his belief that they unconstitutionally require race to be a consideration, in violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “The Supreme Court is poised to affirm this basic non-discrimination principle in Louisiana v. Callais,” Axelman said. “The race-based requirements of the FDA also cannot be severed from the other requirements of the FDA. The FDA was sold to the voters as a package. There was no severability provision included in the FDA when it was presented to the voters. And because one part is unconstitutional, there’s little reason to think that voters would have approved the remaining parts by themselves.”

A DeSantis spokesperson said in an email, “Stay tuned!” in response to a request for comment for this story.

Miami Herald political reporter Claire Heddles posted on X on April 28 that Jason Poreda, a government analyst in DeSantis’ office who drew the new map, told state legislators that he did take partisan data into account and disregarded the constitutional prohibition on doing so.

“The Fair Districts Amendment is part of the Florida Constitution, approved by 63% of voters. It is not optional. No governor has the authority to declare it null, and no legislature can be asked to pretend it doesn’t exist,” Marc A. Burton, an election law attorney in Aventura, said in an email. “You do not strip voters of existing constitutional protections based on a prediction about what the Court might say next month. … This will be challenged in court, and the question is simple: Does the Florida Constitution still mean what the voters said it means?” 

“This governor has thrown excuse after excuse after excuse at the wall, like spaghetti, waiting to see what’s going to stick,” Keith said. “He is fully aware of the fact that this is illegal, that it is illegal in Florida. He needs to have an excuse. He needs to have a way to cover his own butt, to cover the butts of the Legislature, to do what the president of the United States has been asking them and asking Republican states across the country to do.”

“This is just excuse after excuse after excuse,” she added. “I think Floridians see right through it. It’s very evident that this is a partisan game, and I don’t think — neither we nor the people of Florida are falling for this kind of subterfuge.”

“The amendments haven’t been held unconstitutional,” Ellen Frieden, the founder of FairDistricts Now, Inc., which led the 2010 Fair Districts Amendments push, told WLRN Public Media. “They haven’t been even held partially unconstitutional, but yet he has decided that he wants to call these amendments unconstitutional. It makes no sense.”