Florida Republican establishment lawmakers gave up battling Gov. Ron DeSantis on state redistricting, the Associated Press reported Monday.
“We are awaiting a communication from the Governor’s Office with a map that he will support,” the GOP establishment leaders wrote to DeSantis. “Our intention is to provide the Governor’s Office opportunities to present that information before House and Senate redistricting committees.”
Republican establishment House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R) and Senate President Wilton Simpson (R) had bucked DeSantis’s map last month that would generate 20 red and 8 blue districts. Instead, the lawmakers passed and submitted a subpar map to DeSantis, which created only 18 red and 10 blue districts.
Florida Speaker of the House Chris Sprowls speaks during a legislative session at the Florida State Capitol, Monday, March 7, 2022, in Tallahassee, Florida. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
In turn, DeSantis promised to veto the beneficial map for Democrats and announced a special session in April to consider the establishment’s map. With the special session occurring next week, the establishment Republicans told DeSantis to submit a map for the legislature to once again consider.
Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson, speaks during a legislative session at the Florida State Capitol, Monday, March 7, 2022, in Tallahassee, Florida. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
It is unknown why the establishment lawmakers opposed DeSantis from the start, but their decision to work with DeSantis is likely a result of the governor’s massive popularity in the state.
DeSantis’s previously submitted map would eliminate a Democrat district near Jacksonville by splitting it in two. It would also create a more favorable district near Tampa Bay and Pinellas County, an area that is turning red, districts that Sprowls and Simpson apparently opposed.
In March, former state senator and current Lake County property appraiser Carey Baker told Breitbart News the Florida Legislature should work with DeSantis to pass the 20/8 map and not fight the governor on this critical issue.
“Governor DeSantis’s congressional map is both fair and constitutional,” Baker said. “There are easily 100 different ways to draw a constitutional redistricting map. I hope the legislature takes into account the governor’s concern.”
Overall, Sprowls and Simpson have joined other establishment Republicans throughout the nation who have aggressively worked to create districts during the once-every-ten-years process to redraw House maps. Such has been the case in Missouri, Kansas, New York, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and other states that have gone to court and lost against the Democrat redistricting machine.
Redistricting expert and senior editor of the Cook Political Report, David Wasserman, believes Democrats will win the nationwide race with a two- to three-seat advantage in the redistricting battle where Republicans were expected to dominate.