Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday vetoed the state legislature’s congressional map and called for a special session to rectify the standoff with establishment Republicans.
Making good on his early March promise, DeSantis vetoed an inferior map drawn by establishment House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R) and Senate President Wilton Simpson (R) that only created 18 red and 10 blue districts. In contrast, DeSantis’s map would generate 20 red and 8 blue districts, a huge swing that could further enable Republicans to reclaim the U.S. House of Representatives in November.
The saga between DeSantis and the establishment of Floridian leaders has been ongoing for months. Both the Senate and the House submitted subpar maps before DeSantis took matters into his hands and submitted to the legislature his own map, one that establishment Republicans have opposed, along with Democrats.
It is unknown why Sprowls and Simpson, two establishment Republicans who have praised the Bush family, would buck a map that gives Republicans an advantage in November. While opposition from Democrats is expected, it is unusual that Republican legislators would take the side of Democrats. Such is apparently the political makeup of the swamp of Tallahassee.
Overall, Sprowls and Simpson join other establishment Republicans throughout the nation who have struggled to maintain an aggressive posture during the once-every-ten-years process to redraw House maps. Such has been the case in Missouri, Kansas, New York, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and other states that have gone to court and lost against the Democrat redistricting machine.
According to David Wasserman, senior editor of the Cook Political Report, Democrats have taken a two- to three-seat advantage in the redistricting battle where Republicans were expected to dominate.
The establishment media has even taken notice of how “weirdly well” Democrats are performing in nationwide redistricting battles. “[A]ccording to at least one analyst, there is actually an outside chance that the final map will be tilted, ever so slightly, in the Democrats’ favor,” the New York Magazine reported in December.
Republicans still appear to have the momentum to retake the House and potentially the Senate. Republicans need to net three seats in the House and one seat in the Senate to reclaim both branches of government. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Punchbowl News last week that if Republicans win 33 seats, it will be the biggest political shift in 90 years.
“If we win 18 seats, that’s equal to 1994. If we win 33 seats, that could be the largest in like 90 some years,” he said. “I’ll make this one prediction — we’re going to win the majority. And it’s not going to be a five seat majority.”
If Republicans are able to regain control of the legislative branch, investigations will likely occur. Those may include probes into Hunter Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the southern border invasion, and the origins of the pandemic. Republicans may also decide to impeach President Biden.