An hour after SCOTUS guts Voting Rights Act, Florida House passes GOP gerrymander

The Florida House of Representatives has passed a new, aggressively gerrymandered congressional map, part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) madcap dash to redistrict despite a voter-approved ban in the state constitution that prohibits partisan gerrymandering.

The new map could deliver up to four more Republican congressional seats in time for the 2026 midterm elections. The state Senate is expected to vote on it shortly.

The House voted 83-28 in favor of the new map Wednesday morning, amid what appeared to be jeers from the gallery. 

The vote came just an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act, the landmark civil rights law that restricted racial gerrymandering and racial discrimination in voting for more than fifty years. 

The timing was remarkable: DeSantis’ redistricting plan was predicated on the expected Supreme Court ruling, despite the fact that it had not been issued when the legislature convened for a special session on redistricting.

After news of the ruling broke, the House voted down a proposal to recess for two hours to consider the decision’s implications.

The Florida legislature took up redistricting a week after voters in Virginia approved Democrats’ redistricting plan for that state. The Virginia map could turn four additional seats in Congress blue, but must first survive legal challenges in court.

Unlike in Virginia, Florida was not required to get voter approval to redistrict — and it didn’t. DeSantis revealed the map just a day before state House and Senate committees approved the new map.

Last year, President Donald Trump called on Republican-led states across the country to redraw their congressional maps to favor the GOP, setting off a national redistricting arms race in the runup to the 2026 midterms.

This is a developing story.