On January 31, a Texas State Senate seat flipped from Republican-held to Democratic-held, despite Republicans spending more money campaigning and Trump previously winning the district by double digits. 

And while political observers love to take special elections and make them bigger, this election had a lot of folks talking. Including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who wants to take his already gerrymandered congressional map and swing it even more toward Republicans.  

Specifically, DeSantis says his Republican Party should be “clear eyed” about the political environment heading into November elections.

Rethinking that April special session on redistricting, Ron? The governor called an April special session for the Florida legislature to consider redistricting, attempting to hide behind the upcoming Supreme Court decision on Callais, rather than admitting the partisanship of his actions.  

While DeSantis is right that it’s unlikely general election seats would swing 34 points like the Texas special election did, what about the roughly 14 percent points the Democratic Party has overperformed in districts since the 2024 election?  

That would put Florida’s 4th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th and 27th districts all in play based on 2024 results. 

Florida already should publicly drop its attempt to do mid-cycle redistricting, because the Florida Constitution bans the type of partisan gerrymandering that started mid-cycle redistricting in the first place. 

Even if this wasn’t a blatant violation of the Florida Constitution, it’s a risky political proposition. The theory behind the mid-decade redistricting Donald Trump has ordered his lackeys to engage in goes like this: move Republican voters out of very safe Republican seats and into seats held by Democrats. Democratic incumbents will be more vulnerable while making Republican-held districts only a little less red. That’s all well and good for those Republican incumbents under normal circumstances. However, a wave election in favor of Democrats means that DeSantis and his allies might not move enough Republican voters into districts held by Democrats to win those races, but might move so many Republican voters out of districts held by Republicans that Democrats score upsets and unseat Republican incumbents. Gerrymander, meet dummymander 🤝. 

But if that’s not enough, Ron, read your own tweet.  

To stay up to date on all things mid-decade restricting, follow us on list of platforms X [Twitter], Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and TikTok.