Florida dominates the national political spotlight, led by former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), but the Sunshine State has been notching policy wins in Washington thanks to its lower-wattage congressional contingent.
Trump, from his Mar-a-Lago home base in Palm Beach, is trying to reclaim the White House after losing to President Joe Biden in 2020. Up north in Tallahassee, DeSantis is making Florida what he calls a haven from “woke” policies — while eyeing a 2024 Republican presidential primary bid against Trump.
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In the nation’s capital, though, it’s largely political utility players who are ensuring Florida gets its fair share of federal goodies. Florida has the third largest congressional delegation, with 28 House members. Only California, with 52 House members, and Texas, at 38, have more. And while Florida’s two senators are national figures, GOP Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, the bulk of Florida’s House members are not. At least not yet.
At a time of deep partisanship in Congress and politics more broadly, Florida’s delegation has been able to work together on at least some bipartisan goals, as Republicans dominate the House delegation over Democrats 20-8.
Their efforts include funding Everglades restoration, with the goal of creating healthier habitats that support more wildlife, such as manatees, crocodiles, and birds. Florida lawmakers are also trying to leverage their state’s large congressional delegation size in efforts to ban oil drilling off Florida’s coastline. The lead sponsors of a bill to do so are Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan and Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor, who represent districts covering, respectively, the southern Tampa suburbs and Bradenton area and the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg.
Federal lawmakers from Florida also had a big hand in a December 2022 catch-all spending law. The $1.7 trillion law boosts domestic and defense spending through most of 2023, and it has a major Florida component. Sunshine State lawmakers secured $27 billion to respond to recent natural disasters, including Hurricane Fiona, which struck Puerto Rico, and Hurricane Ian, which devastated Florida.
Consistently Rising Florida Population
The rise in Florida’s political clout mirrors its quick population growth. Florida picked up a new House seat after the 2020 census, with so many people moving to the Sunshine State compared to others.
And the state’s population continues to swell. New census figures show Florida grew 1.9% between 2021 and 2022 to reach 22,244,823 residents.
The state has long been a haven for migration for its mostly sunny weather, with 825 miles of beaches stretching around the peninsula from Jacksonville, south to the Florida Keys, and northwest to Pensacola. Plus, there’s a lack of state income tax, meaning paychecks can go as much as 10% further than in other places.
And DeSantis and company have had success drawing people from liberal enclaves.
“When I speak to ‘transplants’ … they say they wanted to be in a state where freedoms abound,” former Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL) told the Washington Examiner.
“Most of them were tired of endless taxes and the ‘woke’ culture of other states, from Massachusetts to California,” said Brown-Waite, who represented a north central Florida House district from 2003 to 2011. “That disdain for runaway state governments was the primary reason to move to Florida.”
Rank-and-File Florida Member Influence
On Capitol Hill, “the 28 congressional members now have the clout (if they band together) to be a force for good,” Brown-Waite told the Washington Examiner.
Florida picking up House seats after the census is an old story. The state’s House delegation has grown sevenfold over the century starting after the 1920 census — from four lawmakers to its current 28.
While Florida was long the largest and most important swing state, of late, it has tilted Republican. Trump won Florida twice, and DeSantis romped to reelection in 2022. DeSantis played a key role in ensuring the House delegation was strongly Republican. He rejected an initial set of maps drawn by GOP state lawmakers. DeSantis instead insisted, successfully, it turned out, on a House map that solidified seats held by GOP lawmakers, forcing several Democratic lawmakers to retire or seek other offices.
The Florida congressional delegation has been successful because it includes seasoned elected officials who know how to get legislation enacted rather than just preening for the cameras, said former Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA), who moved to Florida after his 2007-2013 House career.
Altmire recalled his House freshman class, elected in 2006, included Republican Gus Bilirakis, representing the northern Tampa suburbs 12th Congressional District, as well as Buchanan and Castor.
Buchanan now has a top spot on the House Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for writing tax legislation.
Bilirakis and Castor are both senior members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, an “A-List” panel that lawmakers jockey to join since it has jurisdiction over policy areas including telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health, air quality, environmental health, and the supply and delivery of energy.
“That’s a really good place to be in the state of Florida, having both a Republican and Democratic member high up” on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said Altmire, a graduate of Florida State University who, in 2020, earned a doctorate in business administration from the University of Florida.
The delegation also has lower-profile members who are influential in Congress, Altmire said, citing GOP Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Daniel Webster.
Diaz-Balart’s House district stretches from Miami and its western suburbs to the Naples area across the Everglades. Diaz-Balart has been in Congress since 2003 after 14 years in both chambers of the state legislature. Webster represents Florida’s 11th Congressional District, covering the western Orlando suburbs and the Villages. Webster, before joining Congress in 2011, enjoyed a long and successful legislative career in Tallahassee, rising to state House speaker and later state Senate president.
Neither Diaz-Balart nor Webster is a cable television fixture, but both enjoy respect among their colleagues, which helps move forward legislation, Altmire said. Webster, for instance, has proposed bipartisan legislation with Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) to create the country’s first “Federal Infrastructure Bank.” Their bill would create a private financial institution to help revitalize infrastructure growth across the United States, a long-sought goal of both parties.
Florida Fame and Infamy
Florida’s delegation has its share of political celebrities. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has been a conservative cable fixture since the moment he joined the House in January 2017, representing the Pensacola-area 1st District. Gaetz has been one of Trump’s most ardent defenders, in office and out.
In January, Gaetz also showed he knows how to use political leverage as a lead Republican opponent of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) bid to claim the chamber’s top role. With House Republicans holding a narrow 222-213 edge over Democrats, Gaetz and a band of like-minded conservatives forced McCarthy to endure 15 rounds of voting over 3 1/2 days in what’s usually a procedural matter that lasts about an hour.
And Rep. Byron Donalds, first elected to the House in 2020, has quickly become a high-profile Republican lawmaker. Representing the Fort Myers and Cape Coral area 19th Congressional District, Donalds is a vocal supporter of Trump and DeSantis — and he frequently appears at events with both men. Donalds regularly appears on television and in other media to talk up GOP priorities.
Donalds is among four black House Republican members. He supports law enforcement and opposes teaching critical race theory.
“When you think about members of Congress, you think about their legislative success,” Altmire said. “But somebody who is an ideological leader, like Matt Gaetz, is influential in his own way. He does have great influence because it’s a narrowly divided Congress.”
Across the Capitol in the Senate, Rubio has been a national figure since at least his 2016 Republican presidential primary bid, which came up short against Trump. Rubio’s profile rose with his 2010 election to the Senate after being a state House speaker. Rubio easily won reelection in 2022 against a well-funded Democratic challenger. He isn’t running for president in 2024 but has an active presence on social media and frequently fields reporters’ questions in the halls of Congress and in sit-down interviews.
Scott, meanwhile, has positioned himself as a Trumpier alternative to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Scott, a former healthcare executive and one of the wealthiest members of Congress, never held public office before winning Florida’s governorship in 2010.
Some Democratic Influence
Despite the Republican dominance of Florida’s House delegation, Democrats hold some sway. Most prominent is Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida lawmaker who was chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee for more than five years, appointed by then-President Barack Obama.
Representing the 25th Congressional District, covering the suburban area between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Wasserman has, as a House member since 2005, balanced roles as a fierce partisan and an appropriator, traditionally one of the more bipartisan roles in Congress. She is now the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, a particularly important constituency in a House district, region, and state filled with seniors and many military veterans.
Wasserman Schultz is the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. John Carter (R-TX).
A few hours’ drive north in central Florida, Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL) has become influential in his own way as a liaison and advocate for the Puerto Rican community. Residents of the island territory are American citizens but can’t vote for president or members of Congress unless they move to a state.
Soto, representing the Orlando and southern suburbs 9th Congressional District, was first elected to the House in 2016 after nine years in the state legislature. Soto has pushed in Congress for more federal oversight and accountability into the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances.
Challenges Ahead
Though Florida’s congressional delegation has had its share of success in this Congress, it’s only effective if lawmakers act in a unified way on matters that aren’t overtly partisan, said former Rep. Ric Keller, who represented an Orlando-area House district from 2001 to 2009.
“I think the strength of a large delegation is significantly advanced by working together,” said Keller, who works as an attorney at an Orlando firm and is the author of the 2022 book Chase the Bears: Little Things to Achieve Big Dreams.
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That gets into the larger erosion of civility, a trend that accelerated during Trump’s presidency and is evident to casual C-SPAN viewers.
“Republicans and Democrats from the Florida congressional delegation should not campaign against each other,” Keller said. “It’s hard to say, ‘We’re working jointly for Everglades funding,’ and then be out campaigning against each other.”
