Republicans pressure Ron DeSantis to redistrict in Florida after Virginia Democrats’ win

By Sarah Ferris, Fredreka Schouten, Steve Contorno, CNN

(CNN) — Senior Republicans in Washington are ramping up the pressure on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to redraw his state’s US House map after Virginia Democrats flipped potentially four seats in their favor.

With just six months until the midterms, Republicans see Florida as their last major chance to make gains in the redistricting war President Donald Trump launched last summer. They hope to pick up as many as three seats in the Sunshine State, which would give Republicans back their slight advantage from redistricting, though much smaller than they’d once hoped. With Tuesday’s referendum passing in Virginia, Democrats are estimated to have drawn 10 seats in their favor nationwide compared to the Republicans’ nine.

“Florida has the right and the intention to do it. And my view is that they should,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday. Asked if the Florida legislators should redraw the state’s maps before the midterms, Johnson said: “Yes, absolutely.”

A special session to consider redistricting in Florida is slated to start Tuesday, but no map has been publicly released. A DeSantis spokesperson did not respond to a CNN inquiry about its status.

Key Republicans involved in redistricting say they’ve been kept largely in the dark on DeSantis’ plans. There’s no coordination on the state level because of strict state rules around partisan gerrymandering, and no maps have been officially circulated within Florida’s congressional delegation either.

“They’re just kind of firing up the software now and seeing what they can draw, but it doesn’t seem like anyone has a plan,” someone close to DeSantis’ inner circle told CNN earlier this week. “They know they have to do something, but everyone is hoping we don’t get too greedy.”

Rep. Kat Cammack told CNN she is eager to see Florida Republicans redraw their maps and believes the GOP could pick up two or three seats and still “maintain compactness and fairness.”

But she also warned her party not to go too far: “I think that we get into some dangerous territory if we’re seriously considering five.”

Cammack is one of eight Florida Republicans that House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries specifically pledged to “aggressively target for defeat” if the state GOP advances a new map. (To that threat, she responded: “Bring it on.”)

Not all Republicans are on board. Some members of Florida’s congressional delegation – particularly those in the southern half of the state – are increasingly anxious about creating a potential new map so late in the year. Some simply dislike the idea of being forced into a new district; others are worried that they or their colleagues could have their reelection bids put in danger, according to multiple Republicans briefed on the effort.

GOP Rep. Laurel Lee, who once served as DeSantis’ secretary of state and now represents a Tampa-area district, was cautious when asked whether Florida should move ahead based on Virginia’s election results.

“I am sure that the legislature will make an independent decision about what they think is appropriate, separate from what some of the other states have decided to do,” Lee said.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna noted in a recent interview with CNN that a new map for the 2026 election would mark the third time in four elections that the contours of the district she’s running in have changed.

“Please, guys, c’mon,” Luna said jokingly. “Not again. I’m having commitment issues.”

Jeffries taunted the governor on Wednesday, suggesting any Florida redraw would become a “DeSantis dummy-mander.”

At a bill signing Wednesday in Jacksonville, DeSantis did not address his plans for a new map but blasted Jeffries over his vow to knock off GOP House members this November.

“Please be my guest,” DeSantis said. “I will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign. I’ll put you up in the Florida governor’s mansion. We’ll take you fishing.”

“There’s nothing that could be better for Republicans in Florida than to see Jeffries, Hakeem Jeffries everywhere around this state,” he added. “Voters will not like what they see.”

Longstanding tensions with DeSantis

Many GOP lawmakers and operatives agree that Florida can safely pick up two seats – three at a maximum – without risking a so-called “dummy-mander” that endangers incumbents. But it’s unclear what DeSantis or the state legislature plan to do.

Concerns from Florida’s congressional delegation are unlikely to carry much weight with DeSantis.

The Florida governor has long had a strained relationship with the state’s Republican House members – even during his own time in the US House – and things deteriorated sharply in 2023 when DeSantis launched his presidential bid.

Many in the delegation backed Trump instead, sometimes in ways that seemed to maximize embarrassment to their home-state governor. Some timed their endorsement to coincide with DeSantis’ campaign rollout while others traveled to Iowa to stump for Trump and sow doubt in the minds of caucus-goers about DeSantis’ governing record.

DeSantis is known among allies and adversaries alike for holding grudges – and he has not moved past those perceived slights, according to several people familiar with his thinking.

‘A race to the bottom’

The Virginia redistricting result has also spurred a fresh round of questions on Capitol Hill about whether Republicans’ initial efforts to redraw Texas’ maps last year have ultimately backfired.

Asked whether it was worth it for Republicans to begin the gerrymandering fight in Texas, GOP campaign chief Rep. Richard Hudson told CNN: “That’s not up to me to decide.”

Other Republicans who have been long critical of the party’s redistricting push have grown more vocal since the Virginia results. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, who represents a Pennsylvania swing district, argued that Republicans should never have “gone down this path at all.”

“I thought Texas was a bad idea; California was a bad idea. We should be trying to balance every district in America, not gerrymandering every district in America. It’s a race to the bottom,” he said.

National Republicans, though, argued that they had no choice but to try for every possible advantage in a midterm cycle that is typically brutal for the party in power.

“If Republicans had not gone on offense, we would be down five or more seats. I’m confident of that at this point,” Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, told CNN on Wednesday. “Between going on offense and drawing more favorable maps and being more aggressive in defending the maps that were being litigated, we have come out ahead of where we would have been otherwise.”

Kincaid and James Blair, a top Trump political aide, both said they expected DeSantis to craft a map that will withstand scrutiny.

“Ron DeSantis has drawn maps before,” Blair told CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday. “If he chooses to go forward, he will draw them in a way that’s compliant with the law.”

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CNN’s Manu Raju, Lauren Fox, Annie Grayer and Alison Main contributed to this report.