Jacob Ogles
U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis says he welcomes a mid-decade effort for Florida to redraw congressional lines.
“Love seeing the progress the State of Florida is making on a redistricting effort,” the Fort Worth Republican posted on X.
The post came a day after Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez announced he will appoint a Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting, and after President Donald Trump started the process of potentially conducting a new census.
Patronis had previously expressed hope that Florida would reconsider its lines.
“I support a renewed redistricting effort for Florida. If Texas can do it, the Free State of Florida can do it 10X better. Also, ‘Fair Districts’ is unconstitutional because it violates freedom of speech AND elections are a states rights issue. The more power to the states the better!” Patronis said in a statement in July.
“Time to add more conservatives to Congress, so we can better deliver on President Trump’s agenda, finally win the war against woke, cut government waste, and create an economy that moves our country into a new age of prosperity. (We need more anti-liberal soldiers up here to fight the woke.) Let’s make the AOCs, and Hakeem Jeffries of the world, into the most irrelevant socialists ever — and get this Florida redistricting effort going ASAP.”
Jeffries is the current House Minority Leader. “AOC” references U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat and outspoken progressive.
Of note, Patronis’ jurisdiction, Florida’s 1st Congressional District, may be less subject to significant change in any potential redistricting process. Located on the western-most portion of the Florida Panhandle, the district is encapsulated by state borders to the north and west and by the Gulf coast to the South. Its eastern edge, which largely runs along U.S. 331, serves as the only border drawn by cartographers.
It also comes days after other members of Florida’s congressional delegation, including Republicans, voiced concerns or outright opposition to a redrawing of Florida’s political boundaries.
“I’d like to stick with what I got here,” U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, a Clermont Republican, told Florida Politics at the Florida Freedom Forum in Orlando.
At that event, U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, an Atlantic Coast Republican, also said he had legal concerns about redistricting, noting Florida’s Constitution doesn’t allow lines to be drawn motivated by partisan agendas.
But he did say in the event of a census, he would support a redistricting effort.
“I would support, assuming it’s legal, a new census, because I don’t believe illegal immigrants should be counted. And so I would support a new census,” he said. “And if we had a new census, then you’d have new information upon which to do redistricting that I would support. But if it’s using the same population numbers from a few years ago, I don’t really understand how you legally justify it.”
Other Republicans in the delegation declined to weigh in one way or the other. U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean, a Fernandina Beach Republican, demurred when asked about the matter. “I’m happy to represent this district,” he said.
And U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a Naples Republican running for Governor instead of seeking re-election, was asked on stage at a Republican forum, but said legal concerns compelled him to stay out of the conversation.
“As a member of Congress, I do not engage in redistricting conversations,” he said. “And the reason why, to be blunt, is I don’t want to be in a redistricting lawsuit.”
He did say Florida should always look at the makeup of districts to see they are representative of their communities.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the delegation have promised to fight any effort at redistricting now. U.S. Rep. Darren Soto in a video on social media accused Republicans of trying to “cheat in the election.” “They want to pick their voters rather than voters picking their representatives,” he said.
