TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s next congressional redistricting fight is officially underway.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is calling lawmakers back to Tallahassee for an April special session to redraw the state’s U.S. House districts. He’s launching a high-stakes, mid-decade remap that could reshape Florida’s political landscape ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
WATCH: Florida lawmakers brace for April redistricting showdown after DeSantis proclamation
“We are going to do it in the later part of April, partially because there's a Supreme Court decision that's going to affect the validity of some of these districts nationwide, including some of the districts in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said Wednesday at a press conference in Steinhatchee.
The proclamation comes just days before the regular 2026 legislative session is set to begin. DeSantis has scheduled the special session for April 20–24, narrowly tailoring the agenda to congressional redistricting, any related legal challenges, and potential funding to defend the map in court.
Governor DeSantis said in a social media post, "Every Florida resident deserves to be represented fairly and constitutionally."
Today, I announced that I will be convening a Special Session of the Legislature focused on redistricting to ensure that Florida’s congressional maps accurately reflect the population of our state. Every Florida resident deserves to be represented fairly and constitutionally.…
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 7, 2026
The governor says recent court rulings, and a pending U.S. Supreme Court case examining the use of race in drawing congressional districts, leave Florida little choice but to revisit its map before the next election cycle. He argues waiting until late April provides time for additional legal clarity while still keeping elections on track.
“We have a couple districts that has been thought that the Voting Rights Act mandates racial gerrymandering, so that's going to force it one way or another,” DeSantis said.
But the timing is already creating friction inside the Republican-controlled Legislature. While Senate President Ben Albritton (R-Bartow) has signaled support for the governor’s timeline, the Florida House is moving faster. In an August memo, House Speaker Danny Perez (R-Miami) announced a redistricting review set for the regular session and warned that delays could disrupt the election calendar.
At a December meeting of the House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting, Chair Mike Redondo (R-Miami) pushed back on waiting until a spring special session.
“Given the fact that we are less than a year away from the election, not to mention the fact that the candidate qualifying period for federal office is in late April, it would be irresponsible to delay the creation and passage of a new map, especially until after session,” Redondo said.
If DeSantis’ timeline holds, the candidate qualifying, which was scheduled for late April, would be pushed to June.
Voting-rights groups and Democrats are already vowing to challenge any mid-decade redraw, arguing it violates Florida’s voter-approved Fair Districts amendments, which prohibit redistricting for partisan gain.
“If you have to redistrict the voting distribution in a state in order to win an election, you're cheating. You're also a coward,” said Tallahassee resident Faye Johnson during protests at the December committee meeting.
House Democrats, meanwhile, acknowledge they lack the numbers to block redistricting outright. That’s unlike Texas Democrats, who used quorum rules last year to stall map changes. Instead, Florida’s caucus leaders say they’ll participate in the process to build a record for what they expect will be a lengthy legal fight.
“Politicians should not pick their people,” said House Minority Leader Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa). “Florida's government should not be rigging elections. That's what they do in places like Cuba and Venezuela, not America.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, House Speaker Danny Perez’s office offered only a brief response to the governor’s move, saying: “We were made aware of the proclamation this morning.”
With court rulings looming, election deadlines approaching, and Republicans split on timing, Florida’s redistricting battle is now poised to unfold across both the Capitol and the courtroom, months before lawmakers ever cast their first votes of the 2026 session.
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