Morning Digest: A Florida Republican warns her party not to get greedy in redistricting
The caution comes amid "animosity and mistrust" dividing Republicans in the legislature
Leading Off
FL Redistricting
A prominent Florida Republican is cautioning that an ambitious new gerrymander is not in the cards for the GOP, while infighting between legislative leaders and Gov. Ron DeSantis could potentially jeopardize an upcoming special session on redistricting.
In a new interview with the Washington Post, Rep. Kat Cammack warned that Florida Republicans cannot safely hope to do what their counterparts in Texas did last summer.
“One thing that needs to be made clear: We are not picking up five seats,” she said. “Drawing five new seats would put others in danger.”
Cammack added that targeting three Democratic districts would only be plausible “[o]n our best day,” saying that two was (in the paper’s words) “more realistic.”
Not all in her party agree, however, though more aggressive voices didn’t go on the record. Rather, one unnamed source told the Post that GOP leaders “are aiming for four or five” seats, while another “echoed that three-to-five range.”
A dispute over just how far-reaching a new map should be could cause strife in a party already riven with it.
On Friday, the legislature reached the last day of its regularly scheduled session without completing its one mandatory duty, passing a state budget—the second straight year it’s failed to do so on time. That failure means lawmakers will have to return to Tallahassee next month to finish the job.
It’s a place that many would rather not return to. One Republican senator, Don Gaetz, described “a subtext of animosity and mistrust” among House Speaker Daniel Perez, Senate President Ben Albritton, and DeSantis in comments to Gray Rohrer of the News Service of Florida.
“It’s the same people coming back to the same place with the same grudges trying to do the same thing in the same way. So surprise, surprise it doesn’t seem to work,” said Gaetz, the father of former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Perez has long feuded with Albritton, who has tended to side with DeSantis on many issues. That conflict includes DeSantis’ January decision to call a special session of the legislature to address congressional redistricting on April 20.
While Albritton has spoken favorably about DeSantis’ plans, Perez criticized the governor because convening a special session means yanking legislators—who normally meet for just 60 days a year and mostly have other jobs—away from their lives and livelihoods.
Now, though, lawmakers could be away from home even longer.
After the regular session concluded on Friday without a budget, leaders informed members that they expect to hold a regular session in “mid-April,” after Easter and Passover.
In the meantime, select lawmakers are set to work behind the scenes to hammer out an agreement between the two chambers, which are $1.4 billion apart in their proposals for the state’s roughly $115 billion budget.
But that timeline risks running up against the schedule for DeSantis’ redistricting session: Easter falls on April 5, while the last day of Passover is April 9.
Recent precedent is also not favorable. Last year, when the GOP-dominated legislature also could not reach a deal on a budget during its regular session, it took an extra 45 days to do so. A similar delay this year would push a budget vote until the end of April—past the planned start date for addressing new districts.
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Senate
OK-Sen
Republicans went a long way toward clearing a path to the Senate for Rep. Kevin Hern late last week, as top rivals bowed out of the expected race to replace Sen. Markwayne Mullin, and the most important players endorsed his campaign.
Both Donald Trump and Oklahoma’s other senator, James Lankford, gave their backing to Hern within minutes of one another on Friday evening, while the Club for Growth also chimed in with its support.
Earlier that day, Rep. Stephanie Bice released a statement saying she would not run for Mullin’s seat should he be confirmed as Trump’s new Homeland Security secretary. Later that same afternoon, another potential candidate, Gov. Kevin Stitt, told News on 6 the same thing.
A few minor Republicans are running in the primary, while some bigger names are still considering the race. Given Friday’s show of force, though, it’s unlikely Hern will face serious opposition.
TX-Sen
Donald Trump told NBC News on Saturday that he’d announce an endorsement in the Texas GOP’s Senate runoff “over the next week or so,” despite saying the day after the primary—now almost two weeks ago—that he’d get involved “soon.”
Trump also rejected arguments that Sen. John Cornyn would have a better chance than state Attorney General Ken Paxton of defeating the Democratic nominee, state Rep. James Talarico.
“No, I think they both win,” he said, after telling the outlet, “I like both candidates very much.”
Governors
CA-Gov
SEIU California, which Politico calls “one of the state’s largest and most powerful labor unions,” has endorsed Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell’s bid for governor.
House
NJ-11
EMILYs List has endorsed Democratic nominee Analilia Mejia in the April 16 special election for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.
Mejia is the heavy favorite to defeat Republican Joe Hathaway in that election, but she must also run in the June 2 Democratic primary for a full term and could face stiffer opposition then.
The third-place finisher in last month’s special election primary, former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, has reportedly been considering another bid. However, Way will need to decide soon, since the candidate filing deadline is fast approaching on March 23.
NV-02
Fifteen different Republicans filed for Nevada’s open 2nd Congressional District by Friday’s deadline, though attorney Joey Gilbert was not one of them.
Gilbert, a former professional boxer who has said that he was “definitely on the Capitol steps” on Jan. 6, had considered a bid for the seat held by retiring GOP Rep. Mark Amodei but announced on Friday that he wouldn’t run.
Another Republican who hadn’t ruled out a bid, Nevada Trucking Association CEO Paul Enos, also didn’t submit paperwork. Enos previously said he’d defer to former state Sen. James Settelmeyer, who wound up launching a campaign last week.
Other notable Republicans include Air Force veteran David Flippo, who recently switched over from the 4th District, and retired surgeon Fred Simon.
And despite the long odds that Democrats face in flipping this conservative district, a few noteworthy names are running, including former state Assembly Majority Leader Teresa Benitez-Thompson, businessman Greg Kidd, and former Nevada Democratic Party executive director Matthew Fonken.
NY-04
The Nassau County GOP has formally designated former Valley Stream Mayor James DeGrace as its candidate to take on Democratic Rep. Laura Gillen, but Newsday’s Billy House explains why there’s reason to think Republicans don’t intend for him to be their standard-bearer in November.
DeGrace, a longtime fixture of Long Island GOP politics who’s now in his 70s, has zero footprint as a candidate, scheduling no events and issuing no press releases about his campaign. He also lacks a website or any social media presence. Nonetheless, his name has already appeared on petitions to qualify for the June primary ballot.
However, Republicans could pull a switcheroo right after the April 6 filing deadline, as House notes. That’s because a candidate who makes the ballot can, under state law, later withdraw their name and allow a special party committee to pick a replacement.
Such a maneuver could pave the way for former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, who narrowly lost to Gillen in 2024, to swoop in and seek a rematch.
D’Esposito was sworn in as inspector general for the U.S. Department of Labor in January and has repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether he’s running. The ex-congressman can’t launch a bid for office while still a federal government employee under the Hatch Act, but if DeGrace is serving as a placeholder, he could extend his brief tenure as inspector general a little while longer.
OK-01
Republican Kim David, a member of Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission and a former majority leader in the state Senate, has joined the race for the state’s open 1st Congressional District.
David is the second notable candidate to enter the GOP primary following Rep. Kevin Hern’s decision to run for the Senate. State Rep. Mark Tedford entered the race for the Tulsa-area 1st District last week, the same day Hern launched his Senate bid. A number of other Republicans are also eyeing the race.
UT-01
Former state Sen. Derek Kitchen, who was one of several Democrats seeking Utah’s redrawn 1st Congressional District, dropped his bid on Friday.
Other prominent Democrats still running for this solidly blue district include former Rep. Ben McAdams, Salt Lake City Councilwoman Eva Lopez Chavez, and state Sens. Nate Blouin and Kathleen Riebe.
VA-01, FL-27
After the DCCC issued a press release last week saying it was “closely watching what Maria Elvira Salazar (FL-27) and Rob Wittman (VA-01) do next,” both Republicans told Punchbowl that they’re running again.
Salazar faces some of her strongest Democratic competition in years, but given the conservative lean of her district, her response was unsurprising.
But Wittman, who called any notion that he might quit “absolutely inaccurate,” potentially faces a much more difficult reelection. If Virginia voters pass a constitutional amendment allowing the adoption of a new congressional map next month, Wittman, who currently represents the 1st District, would have few good options for seeking another term.
Much of Wittman’s constituency, including his hometown of Monstross, would get absorbed into the 8th District under the proposed Democratic-drawn map. Should he run there, he’d almost certainly face a matchup against Democratic Rep. Don Beyer in a district that would have voted 58-40 for Kamala Harris.
Legislatures
IN State Senate
A trio of GOP groups is planning to deploy $5 million to defeat five Republican lawmakers in Indiana who defied Donald Trump on redistricting, reports Politico’s Adam Wren, though spending has yet to commence.
An outfit run by Sen. Jim Banks called Hoosier Leadership for America is reportedly leading the charge, with support from Turning Point USA and Club for Growth also “expected.”
Trump has called for Republicans to oust Sens. Jim Buck, Spencer Deery, Greg Goode, Travis Holdman, and Greg Walker in the May 5 primaries.
$5M is a lot of money in 5 state legislative races. Those Indiana legislators acted with integrity. I hope that it works out for them one way or another.
So Trump is going to endorse Cornyn and Paxton? What a wuss.