Gov. Ron DeSantis signs Florida redistricting map, drawing quick legal challenge

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed into law the congressional map his office created.

Within hours, opponents filed a lawsuit.

DeSantis’ plan could add four more seats for the Republican Party. It also threatens to dismantle Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment, a voter-approved part of the constitution adopted in 2010.

“Signed, Sealed, and Delivered,” DeSantis said on social media, attaching a photo of the new districts.

The governor’s signature comes one week after his office first unveiled its proposal. Fox News received an exclusive, red-and-blue party-coded map before lawmakers did.

Lawmakers approved the governor’s proposal after two days of a redistricting-focused special session.

Democrats decried what they saidwas a violation of Florida’s constitution and a ploy to appease President Donald Trump, who has pushed red states to redraw their maps to keep GOP control of Congress.

Florida now joins the about half-dozen states that have redrawn their maps after Trump’s push, either in favor of Republicans or in favor of Democrats.

No Republicans other than the bill sponsors in the House and Senate spoke out in support of DeSantis’ proposal during the special session. Five Republicans voted against the plan.

DeSantis’ signature puts the new districts in place for the 2026 midterms.

But a lawsuit filed Monday by the Equal Ground Education Fund and a group of 18 Florida voters asks the court to strike the map down.

Six plaintiffs are from Tampa Bay, two are from Central Florida and 10 are from South Florida.

The plaintiffs, who filed in Leon County court, are represented by the Elias Law Group, a Democratic-aligned firm that focuses on election law.

The group’s lawsuit focuses on Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment, which prohibits lawmakers from creating a map that favors a certain political party.

The group is accusing Florida of drawing an explicitly partisan map in violation of the state constitution.

“When the time came to present his proposed map ... the Governor left no room for doubt as to its purpose,” the lawsuit said, pointing to the plan’s release on Fox News.

“It was not a redistricting proposal dressed up in the language of neutral principles,” the complaint said. “It was a partisan declaration, and it was presented as one.”

Along with prohibiting partisan gerrymandering, the Fair Districts Amendment prohibits lawmakers from drawing maps that diminish the voting power of minority communities.

DeSantis’ office has argued that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling means the section about race can’t be applied. His office said that if one prong of the amendment is nullified, the other prong banning partisan gerrymandering can’t stand, either.

Jason Poreda, a governor’s office employee who drew the map, said he used partisan data while creating itand did not use any data about race. He denied that the map was created to benefit Republicans.

The lawsuit argues that no court has ruled that the Fair Districts Amendment’s requirements on race are unconstitutional. But it doesn’t challenge the map on that front.

Instead, the lawsuit takes up four concerns: that the map favors a political party, that the map disfavors some incumbents, that it violates requirements for district compactness and that it violates requirements to limit geographic areas being split.

DeSantis’ plan dramatically changes Tampa Bay’s representation. St. Petersburg is split in two and Tampa is split in three.

Florida’s 15th District would snake down into Hillsborough to pick up Temple Terrace and parts of East Tampa, then move north to capture chunks of Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.

The lawsuit notes that the new 15th district has a lower compactness score than a South Florida district, the 20th, that DeSantis had taken issue with.

West Tampa, under DeSantis’ plan, finds itself paired with north Hillsborough and New Port Richey. South Tampa would be linked with Brandon and Plant City, remaining solely with Hillsborough.

Florida’s 16th District would capture the southern half of St. Petersburg and run south to include Manatee, parts of Sarasota and Polk counties and Hardee and DeSoto counties.

The 13th District would capture the northern half of St. Petersburg and run north through Pinellas County, including a portion of Pasco County, as well.

In South Florida, the lawsuit takes issue with several seats, including District 20, which would favor Democrats. The plaintiffs say the district packs Democratic voters into one area.

And while the new map does have a higher compactness score for that district, the lawsuit says it’s at the cost of others.

Davie, Hollywood and Plantation are all split three ways. Other cities, including Coral Springs, Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Pembroke Pines and West Palm Beach, would be split in two, according to the lawsuit.

The legal challenge may not be resolved quickly, even with the upcoming elections.

In 2012, opponents filed a challenge to the map Florida lawmakers had redrawn as part of the standard once-a-decade process. A final ruling striking down the map wasn’t issued until 2015, two election cycles later.

Regardless of how the courts rule in the case filed Monday, the governor’s map has provoked discussion about the state’s Fair Districts Amendment.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Pensacola, sponsored the bill in the Senate. Still, he said he disagrees with the governor’s argument about the Fair Districts Amendment and thinks the ban on partisan gerrymandering should be preserved.

If the governor’s office does succeed inits argument, Gaetz said he would “join with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle” to put that language back in law.

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This story was originally published May 4, 2026 at 10:23 AM.