DeSantis 'seriously' weighing new Florida congressional map for GOP House control
By Douglas Soule
August 1, 2025 at 2:21 PM EDT
Gov. Ron DeSantis wants an unprecedented mid-decade census to boost Florida's congressional representation. Even if that doesn't happen, he's looking at how to rework the U.S. House map anyway.
Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’s looking “very seriously” at a new congressional map for Florida.
“I've said that I would look favorably on the Legislature taking it up,” he said last week. "I would just say stay tuned on that."
This all comes after President Donald Trump urged Texas to craft a map that would increase the state’s congressional Republican representation. The GOP has a narrow majority.
Texas lawmakers are considering a proposal that would create five Republican-leaning seats.
Now, Republican and Democratic states alike are exploring similar avenues in a political war for House control.
But Florida legislative leaders are staying quiet on whether they view redistricting favorably.
Regardless, DeSantis said he hopes the state will be forced to do it, which would be the case if the federal government did a mid-decade census count.
That’s never happened before. The count is done at the start of each decade.
A new Census count?
Florida didn't set aside any money for outreach during the 2020 census. California spent nearly $200 million.
Some groups, like Florida TaxWatch, had warned about a population undercount, leading to fewer House seats and fewer federal dollars.
And that's what happened.
DeSantis now takes issue with how the state only has 28 House representatives, just one more than last decade.
"We got a raw deal,” he said. “We only got one seat, when some of these other states were getting seats when we've obviously had more growth. We should have gotten at least two.”
A recent report from Florida TaxWatch showed the governor is right. Jeff Kottkamp, the group’s executive vice president and general counsel, said the undercount had profound effects.
Not just in in the House of Representatives, but billions in federal dollars.
“We undercounted by 750,000 people, and that's a conservative estimate,” said Kottkamp, who was former Gov. Charlie Crist’s lieutenant governor from 2007 to 2011.
“Had we all used the same criteria, all used the same aggressive methods to count every single person, then Florida comes out ahead,” Kottkamp said.
ALSO READ: DeSantis raises idea of mid-decade redistricting as group warns of 'domino effect' across the nation
This is an area where his group and DeSantis don’t see eye-to-eye.
The report said part of the reason for the undercount is the immigrant community was hesitant to participate in the census.
The U.S. Constitution says every person should be counted, not every citizen. Kottkamp said Florida should not ignore the fact.
“That's just political suicide,” he said. “We need to make sure, whatever the rules are going to be, whether we count these people or don't count these people, that everybody counts the same, so we have a level playing field.”
But DeSantis still defends not investing in the census.
“I think a lot of that money would have been wasted, quite frankly, and some of the blue states are doing that to count illegal aliens,” DeSantis said at a press conference in response to a question from a WUSF reporter. “I don't believe illegal aliens should be counted in the census. I think it's wrong. I think it's unconstitutional."
Renata Bozzetto from the Florida Immigrant Coalition said there's not only hesitancy in the immigrant community, as noted by the Florida TaxWatch report. There’s also fear.
“They are afraid to be in contact with a government that is so explicitly trying to terrorize them,” she said.
But she added it's important that people in the country without proper documents are counted — and that Florida tries to reach them. Bozzetto contrasted the lack of outreach investment with the hundreds of millions of dollars the state has spent on the Everglades immigrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“Floridians are complaining about bad traffic, they are complaining about schools that are underfunded or schools that are overcrowded — all of this is a result of undercounting, “ Bozzetto said.
“That is just completely unacceptable,” she added. “[DeSantis] knows that this is costing Floridians.”
But DeSantis not only wants to change who is counted or not counted. He wants a mid-decade count and says the Trump administration is considering it.
That would pick up the population surge the state has seen since the census count ended in 2020.
But Dan Vicuña of the voting rights group Common Cause said DeSantis’ ideas would clash against legal and logistical challenges.
He says there’s no "constitutional precedent” for excluding people from the census and that a mid-decade count could be “incredibly expensive.”
“Especially in a state as large as Florida,” he said. “You have to hire thousands of census workers to redo something five years after we already had census data."
Redistricting on the table regardless of census
Common Cause's state group challenged Florida's current congressional map. It and others say the state unlawfully removed a majority Black district to increase Republican representation.
The state Supreme Court recently ruled the map can stay in place
DeSantis said, despite the map victory and what ultimately ends up happening with the census, he's exploring a new map to redraw congressional lines.
Redistricting expert and University of Florida professor Daniel Smith said he thinks it would be hard to add more Republicans to Florida's delegation. The map already favors them, with 20 Republicans and eight Democrats.
"That is going to be almost impossible to do, because right now, Florida has almost no competitive seats."
He says that “maybe” the state can find a way in South Florida.
“If they want to start fiddling around in other areas, they could jeopardize some of those marginal Republican seats,” Smith said. “Anytime you redraw a line, you're going to affect the rest of the map by shifting these districts, because they all have to still have the same population."
DeSantis acknowledged "potential problems" in South Florida, where there are multiple Democratic representatives.
A new map requires a special session and lawmaker approval.
WUSF's Meghan Bowman contributed to this article.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“I've said that I would look favorably on the Legislature taking it up,” he said last week. "I would just say stay tuned on that."
This all comes after President Donald Trump urged Texas to craft a map that would increase the state’s congressional Republican representation. The GOP has a narrow majority.
Texas lawmakers are considering a proposal that would create five Republican-leaning seats.
Now, Republican and Democratic states alike are exploring similar avenues in a political war for House control.
But Florida legislative leaders are staying quiet on whether they view redistricting favorably.
Regardless, DeSantis said he hopes the state will be forced to do it, which would be the case if the federal government did a mid-decade census count.
That’s never happened before. The count is done at the start of each decade.
A new Census count?
Florida didn't set aside any money for outreach during the 2020 census. California spent nearly $200 million.
Some groups, like Florida TaxWatch, had warned about a population undercount, leading to fewer House seats and fewer federal dollars.
And that's what happened.
DeSantis now takes issue with how the state only has 28 House representatives, just one more than last decade.
"We got a raw deal,” he said. “We only got one seat, when some of these other states were getting seats when we've obviously had more growth. We should have gotten at least two.”
A recent report from Florida TaxWatch showed the governor is right. Jeff Kottkamp, the group’s executive vice president and general counsel, said the undercount had profound effects.
Not just in in the House of Representatives, but billions in federal dollars.
“We undercounted by 750,000 people, and that's a conservative estimate,” said Kottkamp, who was former Gov. Charlie Crist’s lieutenant governor from 2007 to 2011.
“Had we all used the same criteria, all used the same aggressive methods to count every single person, then Florida comes out ahead,” Kottkamp said.
ALSO READ: DeSantis raises idea of mid-decade redistricting as group warns of 'domino effect' across the nation
This is an area where his group and DeSantis don’t see eye-to-eye.
The report said part of the reason for the undercount is the immigrant community was hesitant to participate in the census.
The U.S. Constitution says every person should be counted, not every citizen. Kottkamp said Florida should not ignore the fact.
“That's just political suicide,” he said. “We need to make sure, whatever the rules are going to be, whether we count these people or don't count these people, that everybody counts the same, so we have a level playing field.”
But DeSantis still defends not investing in the census.
“I think a lot of that money would have been wasted, quite frankly, and some of the blue states are doing that to count illegal aliens,” DeSantis said at a press conference in response to a question from a WUSF reporter. “I don't believe illegal aliens should be counted in the census. I think it's wrong. I think it's unconstitutional."
Renata Bozzetto from the Florida Immigrant Coalition said there's not only hesitancy in the immigrant community, as noted by the Florida TaxWatch report. There’s also fear.
“They are afraid to be in contact with a government that is so explicitly trying to terrorize them,” she said.
But she added it's important that people in the country without proper documents are counted — and that Florida tries to reach them. Bozzetto contrasted the lack of outreach investment with the hundreds of millions of dollars the state has spent on the Everglades immigrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“Floridians are complaining about bad traffic, they are complaining about schools that are underfunded or schools that are overcrowded — all of this is a result of undercounting, “ Bozzetto said.
“That is just completely unacceptable,” she added. “[DeSantis] knows that this is costing Floridians.”
But DeSantis not only wants to change who is counted or not counted. He wants a mid-decade count and says the Trump administration is considering it.
That would pick up the population surge the state has seen since the census count ended in 2020.
But Dan Vicuña of the voting rights group Common Cause said DeSantis’ ideas would clash against legal and logistical challenges.
He says there’s no "constitutional precedent” for excluding people from the census and that a mid-decade count could be “incredibly expensive.”
“Especially in a state as large as Florida,” he said. “You have to hire thousands of census workers to redo something five years after we already had census data."
Redistricting on the table regardless of census
Common Cause's state group challenged Florida's current congressional map. It and others say the state unlawfully removed a majority Black district to increase Republican representation.
The state Supreme Court recently ruled the map can stay in place
DeSantis said, despite the map victory and what ultimately ends up happening with the census, he's exploring a new map to redraw congressional lines.
Redistricting expert and University of Florida professor Daniel Smith said he thinks it would be hard to add more Republicans to Florida's delegation. The map already favors them, with 20 Republicans and eight Democrats.
"That is going to be almost impossible to do, because right now, Florida has almost no competitive seats."
He says that “maybe” the state can find a way in South Florida.
“If they want to start fiddling around in other areas, they could jeopardize some of those marginal Republican seats,” Smith said. “Anytime you redraw a line, you're going to affect the rest of the map by shifting these districts, because they all have to still have the same population."
DeSantis acknowledged "potential problems" in South Florida, where there are multiple Democratic representatives.
A new map requires a special session and lawmaker approval.
WUSF's Meghan Bowman contributed to this article.
If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team by clicking here.
This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.