About this episode

The episode discusses Florida's new congressional map and the implications of redistricting strategies on political outcomes.

Florida’s new congressional map is out, and the more I look at it, the more it feels like Republicans are trying to push right up against the edge of what is politically and legally possible. The goal is obvious: take a delegation that used to split closer to 20 to 8 and force it into a 24 to 4 map. The way they get there is not subtle. It is classic packing and cracking, cramming Democrats into a handful of ultra blue districts while shaving just enough of that vote into surrounding areas to flip them red. On paper, it works. In practice, it might be a little too clever for its own good. The Orlando and Tampa changes are where the knife really goes in. Seats that were at least competitive or lightly Democratic get completely reengineered into solid Republican territory, often by double digit swings. That is not a tweak, that is a transformation. But the tradeoff is that you are stretching your margins thinner everywhere else. You are counting on your voters to show up consistently in districts that are no longer blowouts, and that is where the risk creeps in. If turnout slips even a little, some of these engineered wins start to look a lot shakier. South Florida is the most…

People in this episode

Host: Justin Robert Young

Guest: Kirk Bado

Topics covered

• redistricting
• Florida politics
• Republican strategy
• Democratic voters
• congressional map
• election risks

Keywords

• redistricting
• Florida
• Republicans
• Democrats
• congressional map
• voter turnout
• Kirk Bado

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Florida

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