00:00As expected, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has proposed a new congressional map for his state
00:04that would, in theory, give Republicans four additional seats in the House of Representatives.
00:09Right now, a handful of states, both red and blue, are playing a sort of gerrymandering chess
00:15match ahead of the midterms, trying to ensure their governing party has the best chances for
00:20the most seats. The new Florida map would effectively cancel out the redistricting in
00:25Virginia that was voted in last week, which created a plus four map in favor of Democrats.
00:30The proposed Florida map would leave just Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, and West Palm Beach
00:36as its deep blue strongholds. DeSantis released a statement to explain his reasoning behind this,
00:42and it reads in part, quote, Florida got shortchanged in the 2020 census, and we've been
00:46fighting for fair representation ever since. Our population has since grown dramatically,
00:50and we have moved from a Democrat majority to a 1.5 million Republican advantage.
00:55He called a special session of the state legislature set to start today to consider
01:00the proposed map. Moves like this are not straightforward, though. The Virginia Supreme
01:04Court heard arguments yesterday challenging the map that voters approved just last week,
01:08so things there aren't even a done deal. Texas also redrew its map as part of this
01:13atypical mid-decade redistricting. The Supreme Court struck down a ruling by a federal judge blocking
01:19that map, clearing the way for the redrawn version expected to favor the GOP.
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