Democrats just rammed through a brazen gerrymander in Virginia that would flip four Republican House seats before a single vote is cast.
Now Hakeem Jeffries is threatening Florida – and Ron DeSantis has a message for him.
What DeSantis said next made Jeffries look like the smallest man in the room.
Hakeem Jeffries Threatens Florida Redistricting and Gets Humiliated
Jeffries was feeling himself on Wednesday morning.
Democrats had just won a redistricting referendum in Virginia – a partisan power grab that would bulldoze the state's current 6-5 Democratic House edge into a 10-1 lockout of Republicans.
Jeffries showed up to the Democrat campaign offices to take a victory lap and issued a warning to Florida Republicans exploring their own map changes ahead of the 2026 midterms.
"Our message to Florida Republicans is F around and find out," Jeffries said.
He invented a term for what he called DeSantis's redistricting plan – a "dummymander" – and predicted Florida Republicans would end up in the same situation as Texas Republicans, who he claimed were "on the run."
"The Republicans are dummymandering their way into the minority before a single vote is cast," Jeffries said.
DeSantis Calls Special Session and Dares Jeffries to Show Up
Ron DeSantis did not flinch.
He held a press conference and told Jeffries to come down in person.
"Please. Be my guest," DeSantis said. "I will pay for you to come down to Florida to campaign. I'll put you up in the Florida governor's mansion. We will take you fishing."
"There's nothing that could be better for Republicans in Florida than to see Jeffries everywhere around this state," DeSantis continued. "Voters will not like what they see. The door is open. The invitation's out there."
DeSantis has already called a special session of the Florida Legislature to explore redistricting options.
Republicans currently hold 20 of Florida's 28 congressional seats.
The goal is to carve into the eight seats still held by Democrats – and DeSantis is not shy about why.
President Trump himself launched the national redistricting push last year, urging Republican legislatures to redraw maps and protect the GOP's fragile 217-213 House majority heading into November.
The Virginia Redistricting Map Democrats Were Celebrating Just Got Struck Down
Here is what makes Jeffries' outrage so rich.
Democrats didn't discover a problem with partisan gerrymandering.
They discovered they were losing at it.
Virginia's new Democrat-drawn map – the one Jeffries was celebrating Wednesday morning – was engineered to erase Republican representation across the state's congressional delegation, handing Democrats dominance they haven't earned at the ballot box.
Trump called it "a blatant partisan power grab."
He was right.
And within 24 hours of Jeffries' victory lap, a Virginia circuit court judge agreed – ruling the referendum unconstitutional and blocking its certification.
Virginia Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley ruled Wednesday that the redistricting amendment failed to meet constitutional requirements and issued an injunction stopping the map cold.
Democrats are appealing, but the map Jeffries spent Wednesday morning bragging about is now frozen in court.
Meanwhile, Trump-backed redistricting efforts in Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia have already redrawn maps in Republicans' favor – and Florida is next.
Jeffries called it a crisis when Republicans did it.
He called it "restoring fairness" when Democrats did it in Virginia.
DeSantis saw the hypocrisy immediately and put it on full display.
What the 2026 Congressional Map Battle Actually Means for the House Majority
This isn't about maps.
It's about who controls the House in November – and Jeffries knows the math is moving against him.
Trump ignited the redistricting war because Republicans' 217-213 House majority is four seats.
Four seats.
That's the margin Democrats need to flip to make Nancy Pelosi the Speaker again and hand the far left the power to block everything Trump is trying to do.
Jeffries was counting on Virginia to be the first domino – a Democrat gerrymander that would cancel out Republican gains in Texas and hand Democrats a path back to the majority.
Now that Virginia map is in court.
Florida is calling a special session.
And the governor who already beat the left on COVID lockdowns, on school curriculum, on woke corporations, and on his own congressional map in 2022 just publicly dared Hakeem Jeffries to bring the fight to his state.
Sources:
- Leo Briceno, "DeSantis Says He's Taking Up Jeffries' Invitation to 'F Around and Find Out' on Florida Redistricting Effort," Fox News, April 22, 2026.
- Mark Meredith, "Virginia Court Declares State's Redistricting Vote Was Unconstitutional in Legal Win for Republicans," Fox News, April 23, 2026.
- Nick Arama, "Mic Drop: DeSantis Levels Hakeem Jeffries With Hilarious Invite to Florida for Redistricting Battle," RedState, April 22, 2026.
- Staff, "Hakeem Jeffries Warns Florida GOP on Redistricting Map: 'F Around and Find Out,'" The Hill, April 22, 2026.
- Staff, "Republicans Warn DeSantis's Florida Redistricting Push 'Fraught With Peril,'" The Hill, April 22, 2026.
