Florida passes new House map; Mills exits Maine Senate race
4/30/202620 min
Florida lawmakers have approved a new congressional district map designed to flip four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives from Democrat control to Republican, giving Republicans better odds at maintaining control of the chamber. We discuss what this means for voters, how it affects the midterms and whether the redistricting wars will ever end. Plus, Maine Gov. Janet Mills ends her campaign for Senate.
This episode: voting correspondent Miles Parks, political correspondent Ashley Lopez, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[upbeat music] This week on Consider This, NPR investigates a Republican lawmaker from New Hampshire. He officially proposed a known Holocaust denier join a state commission overseeing history lessons in public schools, a story about extremism normalized and creeping into mainstream politics. This week on Consider This. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Miles Parks· Host0:23
[upbeat music] Hey there. It's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Miles Parks. I cover voting.
Ashley Lopez· Co-host0:32
I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics.
Domenico Montanaro· Co-host0:33
And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.
Miles Parks· Host0:37
Today on the show, Florida is the latest state to enter the redistricting arms race. Yesterday, the state's legislature approved a new congressional map meant to boost Republicans' chances of keeping control of the US House of Representatives. Ashley, what can you tell us?
Ashley Lopez· Co-host0:52
So top line, this map would create about four more seats that could favor Republicans in the midterms this year. And the way Republicans are doing this is by breaking up some Democratic districts in Broward County, as well as some districts in the Tampa and Orlando areas. Um, these are some of, like, the fastest growing parts of the state, also really diverse. Used to be really important during presidentials when Florida was a swing state. This is known as the I-4 corridor, so it is kind of interesting that they're messing with that part of the state because swing voters lately have been swinging back to d- the Democratic Party, so that's something to watch. But yeah, uh, there are a couple of long-term c- members of Congress there that, that