Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier want a census undercount corrected in the Sunshine State, and Democrats disagree. Republicans also want to redraw congressional maps, while Democrats say it is political a scheme to steal elections.
Governor Ron DeSantis previously announced his support for an update to the 2020 Decennial Census, which could potentially yield additional congressional seats for Florida. Governor DeSantis is supported by Attorney General Uthmeier, who has been a leading voice in the fight for a corrected census and proper reapportionment to ensure that Floridians have the representation they deserve in Congress.
“Even the Biden administration acknowledged that Florida got shortchanged in the reapportionment stemming from the last census,” said Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. “My office is working with Attorney General Uthmeier in our mission to secure Floridians’ due representation in Congress and to fix mistakes that have been identified in the aftermath of the 2020 Census.”
Democrats disagree. “We have a federal census every ten years for a reason,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said. “What DeSantis is doing is inappropriate. He’s not responding to population growth, he’s responding to polls. Because he knows the Republican party is on the verge of losing its grip.”
The Florida AG backed up the Governor. “Florida was robbed by the left’s multi-year effort to rig the 2020 Census, and Floridians didn’t get the representation they deserve in Congress,” said Attorney General James Uthmeier. “President Trump called for a new census, and I’m ready to work with Governor DeSantis to bring solutions to the president and get it done.”
Updated data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 Post-Enumeration Survey shows that Florida was one of the most undercounted states during the 2020 Decennial Census. Florida’s population in 2020 was undercounted by nearly 3.5% according to PES data.
Additionally, the Governor noted that Florida has gained nearly two million new residents since 2019, many of whom are not accounted for by the Census Bureau’s initial 2020 reports. The Governor and AG say all of these factors display how Florida is vastly underrepresented in Congress under the Census Bureau’s current apportionment.
In the legislature, the State House created a Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting, chaired by Rep. Mike Redondo with seven other Republicans and three Democrats.
“As many of you are aware, there are national conversations ongoing in other states related to midterm redistricting,” Speaker Daniel Perez previously wrote to members of the Florida House of Representatives. “Here in Florida, our state supreme court’s recent decision in Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, Inc. v. Secretary, Florida Department of State, raises important and distinct questions about 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.”
Democrats slammed Governor Ron DeSantis and Republicans in the legislature for suggesting it would be “appropriate” to redraw Florida’s congressional map mid-decade.
“This is nothing more than a desperate attempt to rig the system and silence voters before the 2026 election,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said. “Now, after gutting representation for Black Floridians and stacking the court to uphold it, he wants to further gerrymander and suppress the vote of millions of Floridians.
“If Ron DeSantis spent half as much time solving real problems as he does scheming to steal elections, maybe we wouldn’t be in the middle of a housing, insurance, and education crisis,” FDP Chair Nikki Fried continued.
