Jacob Ogles
U.S. Rep. Darren Soto joined with other House Democrats in sounding alarms on a potential redraw of Florida’s congressional map.
The Kissimmee Democrat, one of two Florida Democratic incumbents targeted this election cycle by the National Republican Congressional Committee, participated in a series of videos on the threat mid-decade redistricting efforts could have on the Midterms.
Soto alleged House Republicans “want to cheat in the election.”
“They want to pick their voters rather than voters picking their representatives,” Soto said.
Soto was one of several Democrats from Republican-led states who spoke in a series of social media videos by U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a New Mexico Democrat. Stansbury interviewed Soto on the steps of the Capitol and posted the video, the sixth in the series, on Tuesday.
The messaging comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis has increasingly stated Florida was “malapportioned” following the decennial Census.
“I do think it would be appropriate to do a redistricting here in the mid-decade,” he said earlier this month during a press conference in Manatee County.
That came weeks after he said at an event with President Donald Trump that Florida was “gypped” of House seats after the 2020 Census and that a new population count should be conducted nationwide before the 2026 elections.
Soto said that has created unnecessary political uncertainty.
“We normally just do redistricting right after the census, like other states, so there would be no legal precedent to doing that,” he said. “Florida is also unique in that we have redistricting factors that are in the Constitution that have to be followed.”
But notably, the Florida Supreme Court just upheld a map drawn by DeSantis’ office. Minority advocates legally challenged the current cartography, saying the lines were wrongly drawn to diminish voting power of Black communities, particularly regarding a North Florida seat represented by Black Democrat Al Lawson before it was dismantled in 2022.
Soto said he disagreed with the court ruling on the map.
If Florida decides to draw new lines this year, it won’t be alone. Stansbury has also spotlighted Republican-led efforts to produce new congressional maps in Missouri, Ohio and Texas.
Unmentioned by Stansbury, multiple Democrat-controlled states, including California, Illinois and New York have discussed retaliatory redistricting.
Inevitably, the conversations could have potential political consequences for incumbents from both parties in all states.
In Soto’s case, Florida’s 9th Congressional District largely includes all of Osceola County, which flipped Republican in the last presidential election even as Soto won the county by more than nine percentage points. It also includes much of South Orange County and a portion of east Polk County. A change in the map could mean more Republican voters from Polk County are added to the district or Democratic areas of Orange are shed.
Soto notes an amendment to Florida’s state Constitution forbids drawing lines to advantage or disadvantage a political party or candidate.
“You’ll see us do whatever we can in the courts to make sure that the Fair Districts amendments are enforced.
But after state justices called much of the Fair Districts language into question in its recent court ruling, that may not be a guarantee. Soto said in his opinion, Florida’s congressional lines were already gerrymandered .
He also said House Republicans already can credit a slim majority enjoyed now to unfair lines enacted in 2022. He said changes to a North Carolina map allowed Republicans to pick up three seats there alone, which happens to line up with the current majority enjoyed by the GOP caucus in the House.
“If North Carolina wasn’t gerrymandered, the Democrats would be in a one seat majority right now,” Soto said. “And imagine how different that would be.”
He encouraged Florida voters to get involved and speak out against any mid-decade restricting.
“This is absolutely an affront to democracy, and we all need to stand together.”
