Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the state was undercounted during the 2020 census due to changes implemented by the Biden-Harris administration, resulting in Florida receiving fewer congressional seats than population growth warranted. DeSantis made the remarks during an exchange with former Congressman Trey Gowdy while discussing redistricting, census methodology, and representation.
Gowdy opened the discussion by pointing to the constitutional requirement for a census every ten years while noting that the Constitution does not specify how frequently congressional district lines may be redrawn. He then pressed DeSantis on the impact of the 2020 census on Florida’s political representation.
“Institution requires a decennial census, but says nothing about how often the lines can be drawn. Was there an under count in 2020 and how many more red seats could there be in your state?” Gowdy asked.
DeSantis responded by stating directly that Florida was undercounted, attributing the issue to actions taken after President Donald Trump left office.
“Well, that’s a whole separate subject, but yes, Florida was undercounted by the Biden administration,” DeSantis said.
He addressed a common rebuttal to that claim, noting that while Trump was president during much of the census process, the final methodology changed after Biden took office.
“When I point that out, people will always say, Wait a minute. Donald Trump was President 2020 when most of the census was done, which is true, but what happened is Biden came in January 21 he issued an executive order, and the way they ended up arriving at those was different from what the outgoing Trump administration had told us,” DeSantis said.
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DeSantis explained that those changes affected how congressional seats were ultimately apportioned among the states, leaving Florida short of the number it was expected to gain based on population growth.
“So Florida was supposed to gain two seats. We only gain one. Texas supposed to gain three. They only gain two,” he said.
He added that even the Biden-Harris administration later acknowledged flaws in the process.
“The Biden administration themselves acknowledged that that was flawed and that we should have had an extra seat,” DeSantis said.
While emphasizing the undercount, DeSantis said the current redistricting effort goes beyond correcting the census outcome and is also driven by dramatic population changes over the past decade.
“But that’s separate from kind of what we’re doing, both responding the Supreme Court’s decision and just, I think, prudentially Recognizing Florida has had about 10 or 15 years worth of population growth,” he said.
DeSantis pointed to migration trends that accelerated during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that Florida has led the nation in net population gains.
“Just since the Covid 19 pandemic, we’ve led the nation in net in migration,” he said.
According to DeSantis, those shifts have left Florida’s existing congressional districts out of balance, with significant disparities in representation.
“So if you look at when that census was done, versus now, our districts are, in fact, malapportioned,” he said. “We’ll have some districts that have way more votes for Congress than others.”
DeSantis argued that adjusting district lines to reflect current population realities is necessary to ensure equal representation for Floridians.
“And so that is absolutely appropriate to consider that so that Floridians get fair representation,” he said.
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