Wilton Simpson signals openness to House’s congressional redistricting map

Senate President Wilton Simpson signaled a willingness to adopt a congressional redistricting plan crafted in the House.

“I believe the House maps are in order,” the Trilby Republican said. “I believe it’s constitutional. I believe the Speaker and his team have done a tremendous job putting that map together. And so I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t pass that now.”

The House on Thursday debated two maps on the House floor. The primary map (H 8019) notably would reconfigure a North Florida district, represented now by Tallahassee Democratic Rep. Al Lawson. While a map (S 8060) approved by the Senate in January leaves in place a district spanning from Tallahassee to Jacksonville, the House map would replace that with a Jacksonville area seat that doesn’t reach outside Duval County’s borders but which House officials believe would still let Black voters control the Democratic primary.

Simpson would not commit fully to approving the House map. But he also suggested redistricting, one of only two constitutional requirements for the Legislature to complete this year along with setting a budget, will conclude before the traditional end of Session.

“I guarantee we will eventually have a congressional map,” Simpson said in a press gaggle Thursday evening. “We have not gotten the full thing and detail of the House map. But again, it’s not in our chamber yet.”

The welcoming attitude will likely disappoint House Democrats. While the Senate’s draft congressional map passed on a bipartisan 31-4 vote, the reapportionment process has proven more divisive in the lower chamber.

Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat on the House Redistricting Committee, expressed hope today that the Senate might hold its ground on its own cartography.

“It’s all conjecture but we’ve heard the Senate doesn’t like this map,” Driskell said of the primary House map.

The maps produced by the House and Senate are closely aligned in South Florida, but there remain significant differences. Besides the North Florida district, the Senate largely preserves an Orlando area district now represented by retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy while the House map extends the district out to the coast. And while both maps position a new district, awarded to Florida through reapportionment after the 2020 Census, in eastern Tampa Bay, the Senate map contains it in Hillsborough County while the House map has it straddle the Pasco County line to the north.

Of note, the House crafted a map that significantly alters Lawson’s district only after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office submitted its own map that took the same approach with the Panhandle district. Before that, the House maintained the seat was a protected minority-performing jurisdiction.

The Governor has threatened to veto any map that has a district he considers “unconstitutional,” and Ryan Newman, general counsel to the Governor, has argued the Panhandle district falls into that category.

Notably, Simpson made no mention during the press gaggle about the House’s two-map structure. The lower chamber plans to attach a second map (H 8015) that preserves a district similar to Lawson’s current turf, just in case the courts reject the primary map on grounds it diminishes minority voting power.

Of course, there remains a strong chance the Governor still views the maps with skepticism. The last draft map submitted by his office (P 0094) does not leave any minority access seat north of Palm Beach County. After the House unveiled its two-map plan, he still raised the prospect of vetoing everything.

But Simpson rejected suggestions the Governor will wield the veto pen with a sense of vengeance.

“The Governor served in Congress so he knows what it’s like to be in the legislative process,” Simpson said. “He’s clearly been our Governor for three years. He’s had wins and the big winner of these bills that we’re doing is the state of Florida. Collectively what the House and Senate will produce, I believe, are substantial wins for this state.”