{"id":21944,"date":"2026-04-28T01:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/florida-republicans-make-peace-with-proposed-new-house-map\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T01:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:02:07","slug":"florida-republicans-make-peace-with-proposed-new-house-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/florida-republicans-make-peace-with-proposed-new-house-map\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Republicans make peace with proposed new House map"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Some House Republicans spent weeks warning against a drastic redraw<\/a> of Florida\u2019s congressional map.<\/p>\n

Now that it\u2019s out \u2014 with Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting as many as four Democratic seats<\/a> for a GOP takeover \u2014 they\u2019re mostly keeping any criticism to themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they did a pretty good job,\u201d said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, who said he was one of the Florida Republicans whose district changed \u201cquite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think they could touch it up a little bit, too,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Rep. Scott Franklin said he is set to represent his third constituency in four terms. He still lives within the confines of the 18th district, he said, though it is much smaller in area.<\/p>\n

\u201cMine gets significantly less red than it was,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cBut it\u2019s still a conservative performing seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis\u2019 map still has to be approved by the Florida legislature, and it\u2019s almost certain to face challenges in court<\/a>. But many of the states\u2019 20 Republicans are already making peace with new districts that will be at least slightly more competitive.<\/p>\n

Many warned that redrawing the existing GOP-favored map to pick up more than one or two Democratic seats could dangerously dilute the Republican vote<\/a>. And at least one, Jacksonville-area Rep. John Rutherford, said targeting four \u201ccould be a bit much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Down the Atlantic coast, the reviews were more positive. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar\u2019s Miami-area district remains largely untouched under the new maps, while her neighbor Rep. Mario D\u00edaz-Balart could see his safe Republican seat only slightly diluted.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot bad, right? I’m used to those lines, so I’m happy,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cAnd I was one of the people that could have been highly damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

She declined to comment on whether she expects the new map to net the four seats the GOP is craving: \u201cGod knows what’s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several of the Florida Democrats who are now in danger expressed more concern. They now face running in unfriendly districts or switching districts and possibly running against a current colleague.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a South Florida Democrat, said he plans on running again and that he believes DeSantis\u2019 effort will backfire by creating more tossup districts. Rep. Darren Soto called the map a violation of state and federal law but said he plans to run in his current Orlando-area district nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a veteran Democrat representing a district south of Fort Lauderdale called the new map \u201ca completely unconstitutional partisan gerrymander\u201d and said she was waiting to review detailed data on her redrawn district.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the main thing is that this is illegal, and we’re going to sue,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some House Republicans spent weeks warning against a drastic redraw of Florida\u2019s congressional map. Now that it\u2019s out \u2014 with Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting as many as four Democratic seats for a GOP takeover \u2014 they\u2019re mostly keeping any criticism to themselves. \u201cI think they did a pretty good job,\u201d said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, who […]<\/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-21944","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\/21944","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=21944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}