“It’s hard to believe that Florida’s constitution contains a ban on gerrymandering.”
Yes, New York Times. Yes it is.
The Empire State publication released an analysis Monday that ranks Florida as the third most aggressively gerrymandered state in the U.S. Florida’s just behind Texas at No. 1 and California at No. 2.
The analysis cites Florida Republicans’ move to eliminate districts around more Democratic-leaning cities (Tampa, Jacksonville, etc.) while simultaneously breaking up Democratic areas near Orlando and Miami.
Florida in 2026 gained 3.8 Republican seats, giving the state a 76 out of 99 on NYT’s “gerrymandering aggressiveness” ranking.
“Democrats will probably win at least some of the state’s Trump districts in the coming midterms, but they’ll still do far worse than they would have with a party-blind map,” the analysis reads.
To reach the findings, Times staffers compared existing congressional lines to simulations of alternative boundaries without regard to which political party would benefit.
“We compared each state’s map with the simulations, then sorted them according to two equally weighted measures: 1) How many more seats the map gives one party, over the simulated estimates; and 2) How aggressive the gerrymander is, meaning how close the map is to the most extreme gerrymander we can cobble together out of the simulations.”
The result? A map that contains 24 districts that voted for Donald Trump and just four that voted for Kamala Harris.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May signed into law a new heavily gerrymandered congressional map, despite Democrats’ and voting rights groups’ arguments that it is illegal. Both DeSantis and the plaintiffs who sued him over the map ultimately agreed the GOP-friendly new map breaks the Florida Constitution.
But DeSantis thinks those portions of the Constitution aren’t valid.
Early voting is open now through Nov. 1. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Find a list of early voting locations in Orange County here. Find your Orange County polling place here.
And, find Orlando Weekly‘s voting guide here.
