House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he wants to see Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) redraw the state’s congressional map mid-decade after Virginia voters passed a referendum redrawing theirs on Tuesday.
Johnson said he was not worried that such a push by DeSantis could backfire on Republicans as some have warned.
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“Florida has the right, and they’ve expressed the interest of doing it there, and I think that should happen,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday. “That’s my view.”
DeSantis has called for a special session on April 28 to draw and pass a new map in favor of Republicans. The move is only the latest in a nationwide redistricting battle that both parties have undertaken to boost their chances of winning the House in the November midterm elections.
The effort faces an uphill battle, as Florida’s Constitution bars the drawing of districts with the intent to favor or disfavor a party. Republicans hold 20 of 28 congressional seats in Florida.
DeSantis scheduled the session for late April as the nation awaits a Supreme Court ruling on a key section of the Voting Rights Act that bans discrimination in voting systems. The ruling has the potential to shake up congressional maps nationwide.
“I don’t think it’s a question of if they’re going to rule. It’s a question of what the scope is going to be,” DeSantis said at a news conference this year. “So, we’re getting out ahead of that.”
Johnson’s comments come after Virginia voters on Tuesday approved a referendum to redraw the state’s congressional map in favor of Democrats. In the new map, Democrats will likely increase their advantage over Republicans from the current 6-5 to 10-1.
The Associated Press called the race for the “yes” vote at 8:49 p.m. Tuesday, with 81% of ballots counted, when it led 50.3% to 49.7%.
The Virginia results put Democrats slightly ahead of Republicans nationally. Democrats are poised to gain 10 seats to Republicans’ nine due to gerrymandering efforts from both parties.
Democratic leadership took a victory lap after the Virginia results came in, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) saying during a Wednesday morning press conference that Democrats will “not let Donald Trump rig the midterm elections by gerrymandering maps all across the country without a forceful Democratic response.”
He continued, “That is what you saw in Virginia. That is what you will see in Florida, and that is what has taken place all across the country.”
BY THE NUMBERS: HOW MANY SEATS HAS EACH PARTY GAINED IN REDISTRICTING?
Democrats point the finger at Republicans for kickstarting the nationwide gerrymandering, after President Donald Trump pushed GOP-led states to redraw their congressional maps to help the party for the 2026 midterm elections.
“These Republican extremists thought that we were going to step back,” Jeffries said. “They had us confused. We were never going to step back.”
