James Uthmeier wants Census Bureau to adjust 2020 apportionment

With a week to go until Florida legislators convene for a Special Session to redraw Florida’s 28 congressional districts, Attorney General James Uthmeier is urging the U.S. Census Bureau to give the state more seats.

“The Census was designed to ensure equal representation for citizens of the United States, not those who are here illegally or temporarily. The way we count our population has a direct impact on how political power is distributed across the nation, and our state deserves an accurate count that ensures Floridians are represented fairly,” Uthmeier said.

Uthmeier said Florida and other “red states” were undercounted in the 2020 census, with Democrat-dominated “blue states” unfairly benefiting. He blamed an arbitrary decision to award seats based on how many people, including noncitizens, were “physically present” in the state at the time of the count.

He wants the Census Bureau to exclude those who aren’t legally in the country from the count and to stop using “statistical inferences that manipulate the numbers.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis said as far back as last year that Florida’s congressional map doesn’t reflect current reality, given in-migration to the state during the pandemic.

In 2022, DeSantis’ Office drew Florida’s congressional map, one approved by lawmakers after DeSantis vetoed a map produced by the Legislature during the Regular Session.

The current congressional map has 20 Republicans in Congress, up from 15 before. The state gained a seat in reapportionment, taking the state from a 15-12 split to a 20-8 GOP advantage.

DeSantis also said he thought Florida could have as many as five more seats under maps he said “gypped” the state in favor of “blue states” that he believes count “illegal aliens” as part of the metric. But President Donald Trump’s administration did not move to give Florida more seats in the nearly 15 months it has been in office.

An expected Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which DeSantis believes will invalidate minority-access districts and necessitate a new map affecting the 2026 cycle, was the stated reason for the Special Session when it was called in January. However, the malapportionment argument has been held up as parallel justification as the Supreme Court has delayed a ruling.

DeSantis said conservative Justice Samuel Alito is writing the opinion currently, and believes there’s no “dispute” about how the high court will rule.

If that’s the case, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 could be scuttled, and targets could include seats held by South Florida Democratic U.S. Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Frederica Wilson in Florida’s 20th and 24th Congressional Districts, respectively.

Some Republican incumbents, including U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez, Greg Steube and Daniel Webster are among those who worry an aggressive map will put their seats in play.

And there are some who believe that all of this, even if legally justified, will be for naught.

Republican consultant Alex Alvarado wrote in an analysis for the Civic Data and Research Institute that, according to modeling, aggressive redistricting would raise the number of competitive seats from four to seven but wouldn’t give Republicans any net gain.

It is highly unlikely, especially given that Primaries have happened for congressional elections elsewhere, that the Census Bureau will provide data that would spur a new allocation of seats this week.