TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — For weeks, Governor Ron DeSantis has saved of us in suspense, dangling the opportunity of redistricting earlier than Floridians, and now President Donald Trump has put the wheels in movement.
Trump introduced Thursday morning on Truth Social that he ordered the Commerce Division to start engaged on a brand new census. This comes as plenty of states, on each side of the aisle, contemplate redrawing their congressional maps.
“That is one thing we have not seen earlier than. It is probably not constitutionally preventable within the state of Florida. However it would not make it smart politics,” mentioned Political analyst, Tara Newsom.
Florida Congressional leaders level to inhabitants development as a driving pressure to provide a brand new census.
“I do know one concern is that we merely ought to have extra seats in Congress than we do,” mentioned U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Florida).
Governor DeSantis has been cheering on the concept of redrawing the states congressional seats for weeks now, saying the state of Florida ought to have been awarded extra seats within the final census.
“I feel we did get shortchanged. Any method you chop it, we bought shortchanged. Even should you put the unlawful challenge apart, we nonetheless bought shortchanged with the best way they did the calculations,” mentioned Governor DeSantis.
However as St. Pete Faculty political analyst Tara Newsom weighs in, this might backfire on Republicans seeking to acquire extra seats.
“There is a time period that some pollsters use known as ‘Dummymandering’ and that is when both occasion goes and tries to govern and gerrymander the districts for political benefit,” mentioned Newsom. “Generally it really works, typically it finally ends up splitting districts, and two issues can occur: 1) You may land with extra Democrats and a district than you meant, and the opposite, the pushback from voters who oppose the manipulation within the gaming of our democracy.”
State Democrats have doubts in redrawing the map, calling it disingenuous.
“Whereas it could be throughout the letter of the regulation is definitely not throughout the spirit of the regulation and folks perceive the significance of the census to know the significance of redistricting. I feel this will likely be complicated and albeit will undermine the need of voters,” mentioned State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, (D-Tampa).
Florida’s Home Speaker Danny Perez now chiming in on the talk, sending a letter to state lawmakers, calling for a choose committee to look into congressional redistricting.
