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Gov. Ron Desantis signed a new congressional district map into law on Monday, May 4. The map shifts the boundary of District 18, which previously divided Lakeland largely along Florida Avenue.
Now, the district boundary follows much of the Polk County line and incorporates the whole city of Lakeland and most of Polk County into Rep. Scott Franklin’s (R) district.
The map was approved by the Florida Senate and House during last week’s special session.
Search for your address on the new congressional district map to see if you are affected:
Read more about the redistricting from our partners at WUSF:
Florida Legislature pushes forward DeSantis GOP-boosting congressional map
Effects on local voters
Melony Bell, supervisor of elections in Polk County, said that her office expects to begin implementing the new map in the next few weeks.
“By law, we have to send new voter registration cards out, and we just got finished with that, and now we’ll have to redo it again.” Bell said this is an added taxpayer expense, but she won’t know how much until they know the number of affected voters.
“Whatever the governor and secretary of state tells us we have to do, we’ll do it,” Bell said.
Typically, redistricting occurs at the beginning of each decade, following the completion of the U.S. Census. Desantis has been calling for this mid-decade redistricting since last year.
Shifting local boundaries
Central Lakeland voters west of Florida Avenue, voters around Lakeland Linder International Airport, and some Gibsonia residents who previously voted in District 15, represented by Rep. Laurel Lee (R), have been moved into District 18. Some Polk City voters and residents north to the Polk County line who previously voted in District 11, represented by Rep. Daniel Webster (R), have also been moved into District 18.
“The partisanship of people in Florida is very often defined by where they live,” said R. Bruce Anderson, Ph.D., associate professor of political science at Florida Southern College. He sees an advantage in uniting Lakeland and Polk County under a single representative. “I think that it accurately represents the constituency that should be represented.”
Use the slider below to compare the old and new district maps:
Although the new map adds regional voters to District 18, it significantly shrinks the size of the district that used to be one of the largest in the state, stretching south and east and incorporating portions of Hardee, Desoto, Highlands, Glades, and Okeechobee counties. Most of these counties are now part of District 9, represented by Rep. Darren Soto (D).
The redistricting also significantly expands District 16 to span six counties and moves two incumbents out of the districts they represent: Rep. Greg Steube (R) no longer lives in District 17, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R) has been moved out of District 13.
Read more from our partners at WUSF:
New Florida congressional map shakes up districts for Suncoast frontrunners
A controversial state map
Anderson said that the way the map manipulates voting districts in the Tampa and Orlando areas is problematic.
“This is a violation — what the legislature did was a violation of the Florida constitution, which is supposed to preserve a sense of no partisan gerrymandering,” Anderson said.
Jason Poreda, a member of Desantis’s staff who drew the map, told the Florida Legislature last week that he drew upon partisan data during the design process.
“If you look at Tampa and Orlando and just look at the voting shades from the presidential election, for example, you see two blue dots. And those two blue dots are communities of interest subscribed by the boundaries of Tampa and Orlando,” Anderson said.
“And what they’ve done is try to crack those districts and submerge those populations in larger populations of rural and beach-side Republicans.”
Shortly after Desantis signed the map into law, the Equal Ground Education Fund, a civil rights group, and 19 Florida voters from congressional districts across the state filed a lawsuit asking a state judge to block the new map and reinstate the previous map approved in 2022.
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