PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Attorney General James Uthmeier held a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Palm Beach County outlining why he believes Florida was undercounted in the 2020 Census.
“I remember when the first Trump administration was leaving office in January 2021, I spoke with people at the Commerce Department and they said Florida’s gonna get two additional seats in Congress as a result of that Census which was basically the 2010 through 2020, population growth,” DeSantis said before blaming the Biden administration for only picking up one additional seat.
As redistricting efforts heat up in Texas and California, DeSantis joined the debate, declaring that Florida was shorted a seat, only being awarded the one additional seat after the 2020 Census.
DeSantis said that Attorney General Uthmeier wrote to the Census Bureau, the Commerce Department and the White House asking them “to fix this renumeration and award Florida what we’re entitled to. An extra seat in Congress.”
Uthmeier went on to say that during that Census, when he was a senior advisor to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Uthmeier was sure that Florida would get those two seats, even possibly three, given the population growth at the time.
“The Census Bureau has publicly admitted that they believe Florida was undercounted by an estimate of at least 700,000 people,” Uthmeier said.
[RELATED: Census Bureau explains 2020 undercount]
If successful, the effort would force Florida to redraw its congressional map which currently has 28 congressional districts.