ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida's state lawmakers have been working to create new districts that will determine how you will vote in the next election.
They have been making headway, but they're not on the same page as Gov. Ron DeSantis. He's asking the Florida Supreme Court for an advisory opinion on whether the state can legally change a district in North Florida.
The governor wants to have North Florida divided into more districts than what lawmakers were planning. They want to create more seats for Democrats but secure the Republican majority, while the governor is aiming to have a super majority.
Political Analyst Lars Hafner shared a sharper insight, indicating this challenge could help DeSantis if he is later elected president.
“He wants a majority in Congress to be Republicans and that could come from Florida if he gets more Republican seats,” Hafner said.
When the map was drawn a decade ago, it was deemed constitutional then.
The legislature is halting its work on the redistricting maps until the state's highest court can decide what can be done. State lawmakers are only required to pass a budget each legislative session. They are also tasked with redistricting every 10 years due to the U.S. Census showing changes to the state’s population.
Hafner says the governor can veto the federal maps, but he won’t be able to do that with the ones for the state legislature.
“I think the legislature as a whole probably did a fairly good job on redistricting the house and the senate maps. They allowed Democrats to pick up a seat in the senate and several seats in the house. Democrats pushed back against that simply because by doing that the Republicans have consolidated their seats to where they’re unwinnable for Democrats at all costs, so it’ll keep the majority in the Republican hands for the next 10 years. But overall, they really did their job by using the Fair District Act that was passed 10 years ago to move things forward, and so in that light a success,” Hafner said.