TALLAHASSEE — Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez said Thursday he is setting up a select committee to look into redrawing congressional districts, as Republicans seek to keep control of Congress in 2026.
The Miami Republican’s announcement came as Texas Republicans have moved forward with a controversial mid-decade redistricting plan and as the White House has pressured other GOP-controlled states, including Florida, Missouri and South Carolina, to follow suit.
Meanwhile, leaders of Democratic-controlled states, such as California, Illinois and New York, have weighed possibly redrawing districts to help Democrats. Flipping a handful of seats either way could determine which party controls the U.S. House, which Republicans now hold by a slim margin.
Perez said the select committee is a response to a July 17 decision by the Florida Supreme Court that upheld a congressional map Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature in 2022. Opponents argued the map violated a 2010 “Fair Districts” constitutional amendment that set standards for redistricting.
In a memo to state House members, Perez said the committee would review the “applicability and interpretation of certain provisions of the so-called ‘Fair Districts’ provisions of the Florida Constitution and their intersection with federal law.”
“Exploring these questions now, at the mid-decade point, would potentially allow us to seek legal guidance from our Supreme Court without the uncertainty associated with deferring those questions until after the next decennial census and reapportionment,” Perez said in the memo.
Redistricting typically happens once a decade after the U.S. census. The last round of redistricting happened in 2022.
The Supreme Court ruling last month centered on North Florida’s Congressional District 5, which in the past stretched from Jacksonville to west of Tallahassee and elected Black Democrat Al Lawson.
During the 2022 redistricting process, DeSantis argued that keeping such a district would be an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and pressured lawmakers for an overhaul that included drawing District 5 in the Jacksonville area. White Republicans have won all North Florida congressional seats under the new map.
The Supreme Court case involved the interplay of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and the state Fair Districts standards, which include prohibiting drawing districts that would “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice” — often called a “non-diminishment” requirement.
Voting-rights groups that contested the new District 5 lines argued that the overhaul violated that non-diminishment requirement because it effectively prevented Black voters in North Florida from electing a candidate of their choice.
Perez’s announcement Thursday came after DeSantis in recent weeks has repeatedly raised the idea of redrawing congressional districts. Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, issued a statement Thursday calling it “deeply troubling” that Florida lawmakers would explore the issue.
“Redrawing Congressional maps outside of the standard post‑census cycle threatens fair representation, undermines the intent of our democratic system, and risks silencing our diverse communities,” Eskamani said. “We will do everything in our power to fight back on these efforts, reject partisan gerrymandering and uphold the principles of transparency and equal justice for Florida voters.”
Dan Vicuna, senior policy director of voting and fair representation at the national organization Common Cause, said last week the group would file lawsuits to challenge new redistricting plans, regardless of whether they were drawn by Republicans or Democrats.
While the “non-diminishment” standard was a focus of the Supreme Court ruling ,the Fair Districts standards also say, in part, that no “apportionment plan or individual district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.”
In asking House members if they want to participate in the select committee, Perez warned they would be disqualified if they publicly express opinions that “suggest an intent to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party.”
Committee members are expected to be announced with other committee assignments in September.
Perez indicated the select committee would only focus on congressional districts, saying the House doesn’t have the “capacity” to include legislative redistricting. Republicans hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers. Florida’s congressional delegation has 20 Republicans and eight Democrats.
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