Florida Legislature passes DeSantis’ redrawn congressional map

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature on Wednesday passed a new congressional map that could help the GOP pick up four more seats in the state, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court announced a far-reaching ruling that could reshape redistricting.

The final vote is a significant win for both Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump after Trump kicked off a mid-decade redistricting scramble across the country last year. But the new map is also destined to trigger a messy legal battle that could play out in both state and federal courts.

Florida Republican legislators muscled through the map given to them by DeSantis just two days earlier, even as lawmakers were trying to absorb the Wednesday ruling from the high court. The state Senate took a brief delay to review the decision, and several senators could be seen reading it on their laptops.

The map was still approved largely along partisan lines, even though a handful of GOP state senators voted no. Democrats maintained the map was illegal because it runs counter to voter-approved, anti-gerrymandering standards in Florida, but Republicans said they were swayed by a legal argument from DeSantis attorneys who said those requirements no longer needed to be followed.