Florida House Republican members have released their first joint political ad amid uncertainty about how next year's legislative district maps will look.
The ad features several freshman members elected in swing districts and touts state leaders' stance against pandemic restrictions, including lockdowns, school closures and mask mandates.
Right now, Republicans hold a 65% majority in the Statehouse. As chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee, Rep. Paul Renner leads an effort to keep those seats from turning Blue in 2022.
“We’re going to go on offense to make sure that not only we defend the 78 members that we have today, but if there are opportunities to pick up seats, we are absolutely going to go after those opportunities," Renner said. "We’re recruiting high-quality candidates. You saw a record number of female Republicans that were elected — many of whom were in swing seats last year.”
Renner says the committee’s first campaign ad intentionally highlighted freshman members from swing districts. Still, he says, there’s a lot of uncertainty right now about what the state legislative maps will look like next year. State lawmakers will begin redrawing electoral districts in the fall.
“Seats that are swing seats today, maybe safe Democrat seats or safe Republican seats or safer than they are today. In any case, they’re going to change.”
All state legislative districts are up for election next year. GOP leaders have begun forming committees tasked with redrawing the state's congressional and state legislative district maps. An amendment adopted in 2010 requires lawmakers to draw compact districts of nearly equal population size.
