TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Ron DeSantis was once the future of the Republican Party, a battle-tested conservative twice elected as governor of Florida. Then Donald Trump steamrolled him on his way back to the White House. <\/p>\n
Now, more than two years after DeSantis ended his presidential campaign<\/a> and endorsed Trump, the governor has called a special legislative session on redistricting and other issues that will put him back in the national spotlight and maybe remind Republicans that he could lead the party one day. <\/p>\n But there are also plenty of risks involved for the 47-year-old governor, and they became immediately apparent after lawmakers convened Tuesday. <\/p>\n DeSantis is pushing state lawmakers to redraw Florida\u2019s congressional map as part of a coast-to-coast redistricting battle<\/a> ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections. His proposal, released the day before the session began, would make it easier for Republicans to win up to four more seats, equivalent to Democrats\u2019 potential gains from last week\u2019s referendum in Virginia.<\/a><\/p>\n The governor also wanted lawmakers to adopt new regulations for artificial intelligence and loosen vaccine requirements. However, his proposals quickly hit a roadblock when House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican but not a DeSantis acolyte, told members that he would not advance any legislation on those issues.<\/p>\n Perez said the governor\u2019s maps are on a fast track, with a House vote expected Wednesday, but some Republicans are worried that a gerrymandered map will backfire and make it easier for Democrats to pick up seats, which would be a black eye for DeSantis.<\/p>\n He already faces tough prospects on the national stage, even with Trump constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2028. DeSantis has had a relatively low profile during Trump\u2019s second presidency and would likely have Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, another Floridian, to contend with in a Republican primary. <\/p>\n \u201cThe window for Ron looks reasonably narrow at this point,\u201d said Whit Ayres, who served as DeSantis\u2019 pollster in his first campaign for governor in 2018. <\/p>\n DeSantis\u2019 office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. But the governor has at least embraced the national redistricting fight. When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., last week dared Florida Republicans to go ahead with their special session, the governor punched back with the kind of aggressiveness he showed in the early days of his failed White House bid. <\/p>\n \u201cI will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign,\u201d DeSantis said of Jeffries. \u201cI\u2019ll put you up in the Florida governor\u2019s mansion. We\u2019ll take you fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis wants four more Republican seats<\/p>\n DeSantis unveiled his proposed congressional map to Fox News on Monday even before it had been widely circulated among lawmakers. He argued that the 2020 census shortchanged the state\u2019s population, making it necessary to redraw the lines.<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s map, if approved, would reshape districts in Democratic areas around Orlando, Tampa Bay, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The changes could cost Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others, their seats. <\/p>\n The current maps yielded a 20 to 8 Republican tilt in 2024. DeSantis\u2019 version would aim for an advantage of 24 to 4.<\/p>\n DeSantis first announced the special session in January, months after Trump started pushing Republican-run states to redraw their congressional boundaries. What followed has been a tit-for-tat battle, with each party looking for an edge in the midterms. <\/p>\n The Virginia referendum celebrated by Democrats is facing a court challenge<\/a>. Another legal battle is playing out in Wisconsin, where Democrats also hope to pick up another seat or two. <\/p>\n There\u2019s no guarantee that new maps will play out the way parties hope. For example, Texas based its revised lines<\/a> largely on Trump\u2019s performance in 2024, theoretically redistributing the president\u2019s voters across more districts to pull them into the Republican column. But Trump\u2019s popularity has waned<\/a> since his reelection, including among Latino voters who figure prominently in the state.<\/p>\n Florida could face a similar conundrum. Creating more majority-Republican districts but with thinner margins could dilute GOP advantages and give Democrats more opportunities to win seats, especially if there\u2019s an anti-Trump backlash at the polls this year. <\/p>\n Karl Rove, a former top political adviser to President George W. Bush, warned that if Florida Republicans get too aggressive, \u201cthey may lose a seat or two.\u201d<\/p>\n Brian Ballard, an influential Florida lobbyist who has been DeSantis\u2019 top fundraiser, said it\u2019s worth remembering that DeSantis was the muscle behind the current map that expanded Republicans\u2019 advantage in the state. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s incredibly smart and capable,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cAnd he doesn\u2019t get enough credit for that map. He\u2019s done this before.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida legislative leaders are not rubber stamps for DeSantis<\/p>\n As it did Tuesday, the Florida House has grown more willing to buck the governor in recent sessions. Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton made clear for weeks that they were not drawing their own proposals and would react only to what DeSantis put forward.<\/p>\n Albritton sent multiple memos to senators reminding them of Florida\u2019s state constitutional limits on redistricting and the requirement that it not be done as a blatantly partisan act. <\/p>\n Perez sidestepped questions Tuesday about whether the maps violate those requirements, which Florida voters approved by a nearly 2-to-1 margin in 2010. Democrats and political advocates have promised legal challenges. <\/p>\n Beyond redistricting, DeSantis was effectively asking House members to approve AI and vaccine proposals that they refused even to advance out of committee earlier this year.<\/p>\n On AI, DeSantis wanted to require tech companies to ensure children cannot interact with chatbots without parental permission. He also wanted to prevent AI from generating harmful material for minors. That proposal put DeSantis at odds with Trump, who wants the federal government to be the regulator<\/a> of AI technology. Perez said he sides with the president, calling AI a \u201cnational security issue\u201d that is \u201cbigger than just one state.\u201d<\/p>\n On vaccines, DeSantis wanted to add a conscience-based exemption to public school vaccine requirements, similar to the existing religious exemption. That aligns him with the anti-vaccine portion of the Trump base that was instrumental in making Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the U.S. health secretary. <\/p>\n Perez countered that vaccine requirements in the U.S. \u201chave been working for decades\u201d and said he remains uncomfortable with \u201cchildren being in school without measles and mumps and polio and chickenpox vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n Political observers are watching \u2014 even at the White House<\/p>\n Ballard downplayed any political concerns for DeSantis. What may seem to some as strained relations with certain Republican legislative leaders, he said, is simply measuring DeSantis against the opening years of his tenure.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, he went from batting a thousand to maybe batting .600,\u201d Ballard said, using a baseball analogy for the governor who played the sport while attending Yale. \u201cThat isn\u2019t failure.\u201d<\/p>\n During the last Republican presidential primary, DeSantis initially gave conservative establishment figures and key donors an option other than Trump, who grew frustrated by the challenge and mocked the governor as \u201cRon DeSanctimonious.\u201d<\/p>\n