Lawmakers have yet to lay much groundwork for Florida’s special session on congressional redistricting, which has garnered national attention and is set to begin Monday.
Neither chamber of the Legislature has worked on drafting new maps, there are no scheduled meetings for next week, and legislative leadership offices offered no new updates Wednesday, a day after Gov. Ron DeSantis indicated the session he called could be delayed.
READ MORE: DeSantis considers 'little tweak' to redistricting schedule
Katie Betta, a spokeswoman for the Senate, said there was “no update yet” when asked about the session's plans and whether the Senate had received any guidance from the DeSantis’ office.
On Tuesday, DeSantis said he expects the issue to be addressed “One way or another, within, probably, within the next two weeks.”
“Ultimately, they're going to have to consider maps,” DeSantis said during a bill signing event in Tallahassee.
In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Democrats pointed to the 2010 constitutional amendments — known as the Fair Districts amendments — banning partisan gerrymandering.
“The reason they're hedging is because they need more time to find new excuses to make what's happening look less illegal,” said Orlando Democratic Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith. “I want to remind and encourage my Republican colleagues that we don't have to do this.”
DeSantis called the atypical mid-decade redistricting session for the week in January, scheduling it for the week of April 20. DeSantis said the changes would, in part, better reflect Florida’s increased population since the 2020 census was conducted.
But in his official proclamation calling the special session, he pointed to a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on a Louisiana redistricting case that could knock down part of the Voting Rights Act. Such a ruling, DeSantis believes, would render some South Florida districts unconstitutional and require the state to redraw its map.
That ruling, however, still hasn’t been released. The next scheduled release date for U.S. Supreme Court opinions is Friday.
The move for the special session came after President Donald Trump called on Republican-controlled states to redraw their maps to give the GOP a better chance of maintaining control of the U.S. House after the midterm elections. Republicans hold a narrow 216-213 advantage over Democrats in the chamber.
In his Tuesday remarks, DeSantis noted legislators have also not completed the budget for the next fiscal year, which could eventually be combined with the redistricting efforts.
House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Miami Republican who has often been at odds with DeSantis on various issues, convened a select committee on redistricting last year. But after two meetings in December, the panel stopped meeting and hasn’t worked on any maps. The Senate hasn’t worked on draft maps either.
Meanwhile, Democrats have been emboldened by recent special elections where they flipped a state Senate seat sought by a member of state House leadership and the Palm Beach County House seat that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried cautioned that shifting Democratic voters out of currently Democratic held districts to make them more competitive could impact safe Republicans.
“Drawing district lines in the middle of a decade for partisan political purposes is illegal, expensive, unnecessary, and anti-democratic,” Fried said.
Redistricting usually happens after each U.S. census, with the last round in Florida in 2022. Republicans hold 20 of the state’s 28 congressional seats.
Some Congressional Republicans from Florida have reportedly expressed concerns about making unnecessary changes to the map.
"The Legislature needs to be very cognizant of the fact that if they get too aggressive … you could put incumbent members at risk,” Congressman Greg Steube, a Republican from Sarasota, told Politico in March.