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Redistricting in Florida ahead of the 2026 elections
Redistricting is the process of enacting new district boundaries for elected offices, particularly for offices in the U.S. House of Representatives and state legislatures. This article chronicles the 2020 redistricting cycle in California.
Florida's 28 United States representatives and 160 state legislators are all elected from political divisions called districts. District lines are redrawn every 10 years following completion of the United States census. Federal law stipulates that districts must have nearly equal populations and must not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.
Congressional districts
Congressional redistricting in Florida ahead of the 2026 elections is ongoing.
After Texas Republicans launched their congressional redistricting effort, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) suggested in July 2025 that his state might also redraw its congressional district boundaries.[1] In August 2025, Florida began taking official action toward congressional redistricting ahead of the 2026 elections.
Heading into the redistricting effort, Republicans represented 20 of Florida's 28 Congressional districts, and Democrats represented eight.
Click here for more information about the congressional maps enacted in Florida after the 2020 census.
Legislative districts
Litigation over state legislative redistricting in Florida after the 2020 census is ongoing.
On May 23, 2024, a group of community organizations and voters filed a lawsuit arguing that three congressional districts and seven state house districts were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. On February 13, 2025, a three-judge panel allowed a challenge against eight of the 10 districts to continue, allowing a challenge against all state house districts and Florida's 26th Congressional District, but not Florida's 27th or 28th.[2]
Click here for more information about the state legislative maps enacted in Florida after the 2020 census.
For a complete overview of redistricting in Florida after the 2020 census, click here.
Summary
This section lists major events in the post-2020 census redistricting cycle in reverse chronological order. Major events include the release of apportionment data, the release of census population data, the introduction of formal map proposals, the enactment of new maps, and noteworthy court challenges. Click the dates below for additional information.
- August 7, 2025: Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez (R) announced in a memo that a Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting would be formed.[3][4] The memo stated that committee membership would be announced in September, with requests to serve on the committee due August 15, 2025.[4]
- July 17, 2025: The Florida Supreme Court upheld the state's congressional map.
Court challenges
Cubanos Pa'Lante, et al. v. Florida House of Representatives, et al.
On May 23, 2024, a group of community organizations and voters filed a lawsuit arguing that three congressional districts and seven state house districts were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. On February 13, 2025, a three-judge panel allowed a challenge against eight of the 10 districts to continue, allowing a challenge against all state house districts and Florida's 26th Congressional District, but not Florida's 27th or 28th.[2] The three-judge panel wrote:
| “ | In this case, Plaintiffs allege that the Florida Legislature racially gerrymandered three Congressional Districts—26, 27, and 28—and seven State House districts—112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 118, and 119—in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. ... Plaintiffs present insufficient factual allegations to state a plausible claim that the Florida Legislature racially gerrymandered Congressional Districts 27 and 28, but their claims survive in all other respects at the pleading stage.[5][6] | ” |
For more information about redistricting lawsuits in Florida, click here.
Enacted maps
Enacted congressional district maps
On March 27, 2024, the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida upheld the state's congressional map after it was struck down by a lower court on Sep. 2, 2023. As a result, this map was used for Florida's 2024 congressional elections. According to the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida's order:
| “ | This case involves constitutional challenges to the congressional districting map proposed by Governor Ron DeSantis and enacted by the Florida Legislature in 2022 ... Plaintiffs had to prove both discriminatory effects and a discriminatory purpose. They proved neither. Thus, [we] concur in the decision to grant judgment in the Secretary’s favor.[7][6] | ” |
On December 1, 2023, the Florida First District Court of Appeal ruled 8-2 that the redistricting plan did not unconstitutionally limit Black voting power.[8] The plaintiffs appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, which heard arguments on September 12, 2024.[9]
On September 2, 2023, Leon County Circuit Court Judge J. Lee Marsh struck down enacted North Florida congressional districts and ordered the Legislature to redraw district boundaries.[10] On June 2, 2022, the Florida Supreme Court had declined to block Florida's enacted congressional map, which Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law on April 22.[11]
The Florida First District Court of Appeal had reinstated the congressional district boundaries on May 20, overruling Leon County Circuit Court Judge Layne Smith's temporary hold on the map.[12][13] On May 11, Smith issued an order declaring Florida's enacted congressional map unconstitutional, saying, "The enacted map is unconstitutional under the Fair District amendment. It diminishes African-Americans’ ability to elect the representative of their choice." Smith also said a map drawn by a court-appointed special master should be substituted for the enacted map in the 2022 elections.[14] The plaintiffs in the case filed an emergency appeal with the Florida Supreme Court on May 23, 2022, seeking a hold on the enacted congressional map.[15]
DeSantis signed the original congressional map into law on April 22, 2022.[16] The map bill was proposed and approved by the Florida State Legislature during a special session called for the purposes of redistricting. The Florida State Senate voted 24-15 to approve the map on April 20, and the Florida House of Representatives voted 68-34 to approve the map on April 21.[17][18]
This was the second congressional map bill approved by the state legislature. DeSantis vetoed the first on March 29. Republican leaders in the legislature said on April 11 that they would wait to receive a map from DeSantis to support.[19] DeSantis submitted a map to the legislature on April 13, which became the enacted map.[20]
Enacted state legislative district maps
On March 3, 2022, the Florida Supreme Court approved new legislative maps drawn by the Florida State Legislature. These maps took effect for Florida's 2022 legislative elections.
The maps were passed by the legislature as a joint resolution. The Florida State Senate voted 34-3 to approve the bill on January 20, and the Florida House of Representatives voted 77-39 to approve the bill on February 2.[21] Since the maps were passed as a joint resolution, they did not require the signature of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to become law. After the legislature approved the maps, they submitted them to Attorney General Ashley B. Moody (R), who then petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to review the maps on February 9.[22][23]
See also
- Redistricting in Florida after the 2020 census
- Redistricting in Florida after the 2010 census
- Redistricting in Florida
- State-by-state redistricting procedures
- Majority-minority districts
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- All About Redistricting
- Dave's Redistricting
- FiveThirtyEight, "What Redistricting Looks Like In Every State"
- National Conference of State Legislatures, "Redistricting Process"
- FairVote, "Redistricting"
Footnotes
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedflorida - ↑ 2.0 2.1 Florida Politics, "Legal challenge to South Florida congressional and House districts moves forward," February 19, 2025
- ↑ Tampa Bay Times, "Florida House speaker puts together Congressional redistricting committee," August 7, 2025
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 X, "Interactive Polls on August 7, 2025," accessed August 8, 2025
- ↑ United States District Court Southern District of Florida, "Case 1:24-cv-21983-JB, Document 88," accessed February 27, 2025
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, "Common Cause Florida v. Byrd," March 27, 2024
- ↑ CBS News, "Florida appeals court upholds congressional redistricting plan backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis," December 1, 2023
- ↑ Politico, "Florida’s high court poised to protect DeSantis’ congressional map that helps GOP," September 12, 2024
- ↑ Tampa Bay Times, "Judge rules against DeSantis in challenge to congressional map," September 2, 2023
- ↑ Florida Politics, "Florida Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to congressional map ahead of Midterms," June 2, 2022
- ↑ Orlando Sentinel, "Florida appeals court reinstates DeSantis’ congressional map," May 20, 2022
- ↑ Florida District Court of Appeal, First District, "Secretary of State Laurel Lee v. Black Voters Matter, et al.," May 20, 2022
- ↑ NBC News, "Florida judge says he’ll block DeSantis' congressional redistricting map," May 11, 2022
- ↑ Florida Supreme Court, "Black Voters Matter, et al. v. Cord Byrd, Florida Secretary of State," May 23, 2022
- ↑ Florida Politics, "Gov. DeSantis signs his congressional map into law," April 22, 2022
- ↑ Florida Politics, "Florida Senate passes Gov. DeSantis’ congressional map," April 20, 2022
- ↑ Florida Politics, "Legislature approves Gov. DeSantis’ controversial congressional redistricting map," April 21, 2022
- ↑ Tampa Bay Times, "Florida Legislature won’t draft new redistricting map, deferring to DeSantis," April 11, 2022
- ↑ Florida Politics, "Gov. DeSantis submits congressional redistristing plan critics contend is ‘partisan gerrymandering’," April 14, 2022
- ↑ Florida State Senate, "CS/SJR 100: Joint Resolution of Apportionment," accessed March 3, 2022
- ↑ Florida Politics, "Florida Legislature approves redistricting maps for Senate and House," February 3, 2022
- ↑ Florida Politics, "Ashley Moody petitions court on legislative maps as congressional redistricting continues to pitter," February 9, 2022
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