{"id":20540,"date":"2026-03-25T21:17:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T21:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/special-election-shocker-has-florida-republicans-nervous-about-redistricting\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T21:17:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T21:17:57","slug":"special-election-shocker-has-florida-republicans-nervous-about-redistricting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/special-election-shocker-has-florida-republicans-nervous-about-redistricting\/","title":{"rendered":"Special election shocker has Florida Republicans nervous about redistricting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Florida has been viewed for months as the potential capstone of a GOP redistricting campaign, but now Sunshine State Republicans are growing wary after the dramatic flip of two legislative seats in the state \u2014 including one where President Donald Trump votes.<\/p>\n

Republicans already hold a commanding 20-8 edge over Democrats in the Florida House delegation, and some in the GOP \u2014 including Gov. Ron DeSantis \u2014 believe they could pick up as many as five more seats with a rare mid-decade redraw of district lines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some Florida incumbents are now warning in stark terms it could backfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Legislature needs to be very cognizant of the fact that if they get too aggressive \u2026 you could put incumbent members at risk,\u201d GOP Rep. Greg Steube<\/a> said. Some seats that Republicans previously won by eight or nine points, he said, could instead have only a four- or five-point GOP advantage \u2014 putting them in reach for Democrats in a wave election.<\/p>\n

DeSantis, citing a state Supreme Court decision from last year and a potential ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, has already called a special session of the state Legislature in April to push ahead with new lines<\/a>. So far there have been no official maps produced or any signs that lawmakers have started working on them.<\/p>\n

Republican anxiety has only grown further after Democrats notched surprising wins in special elections Tuesday, including a Palm Beach County district that contains the Mar-a-Largo resort where Trump lives and votes.<\/p>\n

While many in the GOP have brushed off the Democratic gains there and in other states as anomalies, private qualms are growing among the incumbents whose seats could be put at greater risk due to redistricting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep saying these are kind of one-off things that haven’t gone our way,\u201d said one Florida House Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly. \u201cBut I’m not seeing any of the one-offs that are going our way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo talk as aggressively as some of what we’ve heard, there’s no way to get there without significantly weakening some districts,\u201d the member added.<\/p>\n

House Democrats are hoping to capitalize on the opportunity. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> quickly sent a warning Tuesday night that redistricting could backfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will crush House Republicans in November if DeSantis tries to gerrymander the Florida congressional map,\u201d Jeffries said in a post on X<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Others are openly objecting to redistricting on more high-minded grounds. Rep. Daniel Webster<\/a>, a veteran Republican from central Florida, called it a \u201cslippery slope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been around enough reapportionments to know it can come back and bite you,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t like this redistricting stuff,\u201d Jacksonville-area Rep. John Rutherford said, noting south Florida would likely bear the brunt of any changes. \u201cBut if they think they can get another two seats or something, have at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any significant redraw in Florida would likely focus on changing districts that were drawn based on racial considerations, the subject of the court rulings DeSantis has cited. While much of the focus has been on seats held by Democrats, Republicans concede it could lead to changes to the Miami-area district represented by GOP Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some incumbents are also worried that redistricting \u2014 still weeks away \u2014 is hindering their reelection campaigns as the midterms approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you knock on doors if you don’t know if those doors are gonna be in your district or not?\u201d Steube said.<\/p>\n

The hand-wringing over Florida comes as the fallout from Trump\u2019s monthslong redistricting push<\/a> continues to ripple through the House. Republicans kicked things off with a surprise effort to draw new maps in Texas, but Democrats countered with an effort to draw California\u2019s lines in their favor.<\/p>\n

After months of wrangling in about a dozen states, the whole effort looks to end up close to a wash \u2014 after some Republicans tried to warn party leaders the heavy-handed effort could backfire.<\/p>\n

A group of House Republicans from Florida privately discussed their concerns about the fallout of yet another redistricting push in their state, several Republicans confirmed \u2014 especially amid rising anxiety that Hispanic voters could be turning away from the GOP.<\/p>\n

House GOP leaders mostly brushed off the Florida special elections in public comments Wednesday, arguing that low-turnout, off-cycle races shouldn\u2019t be considered midterm bellwethers. But some suggested there are lessons to be learned from Tuesday\u2019s results.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurely you look at those and see, are there things we can learn and improve upon when the big election comes?\u201d House Majority Leader Steve Scalise<\/a> told reporters Wednesday. \u201cAnd obviously, November is the election that we are focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top leaders of the House GOP\u2019s campaign arm, Reps. Richard Hudson<\/a> of North Carolina and Brian Jack<\/a> of Georgia, both deferred to the state Legislature on redistricting in Florida Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Hudson, the NRCC chair, said Florida\u2019s growing population means redistricting \u201cmakes sense to do,\u201d but he said he was more concerned about turnout and other factors.<\/p>\n

Jack, the group\u2019s deputy chair for recruiting, similarly talked up the candidates Republicans would be fielding in Florida and elsewhere. As for redistricting, he said, \u201cI defer to the Legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s up to them,\u201d he said, \u201cnot up to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida has been viewed for months as the potential capstone of a GOP redistricting campaign, but now Sunshine State Republicans are growing wary after the dramatic flip of two legislative seats in the state \u2014 including one where President Donald Trump votes. Republicans already hold a commanding 20-8 edge over Democrats in the Florida House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}