LAKE WORTH, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis is throwing his support behind efforts to update the results of the 2020 U.S. Census, a move he says could give Florida the additional congressional seats it was denied due to an undercount.
DeSantis appeared alongside Attorney General James Uthmeier on Wednesday, who has been a leading advocate for revisiting the census count and securing what he called “proper reapportionment” for Floridians.
“Even the Biden administration acknowledged that Florida got shortchanged in the reapportionment stemming from the last census,” DeSantis said. “My office is working with Attorney General Uthmeier in our mission to secure Floridians’ due representation in Congress and to fix mistakes that have been identified in the aftermath of the 2020 Census.”
Uthmeier was even more direct, blaming political interference for the state’s underrepresentation. “Florida was robbed by the left’s multi-year effort to rig the 2020 Census, and Floridians didn’t get the representation they deserve in Congress,” he said. “President Trump called for a new census, and I’m ready to work with Governor DeSantis to bring solutions to the president and get it done.”
The push follows findings from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 Post-Enumeration Survey, which showed Florida was among the states most undercounted in the 2020 census. According to the survey, Florida’s population was undercounted by nearly 3.5%. Since 2019, the state has also added nearly 2 million new residents — growth that was not captured in the original 2020 numbers.
State officials argue that the combination of the undercount and explosive population growth means Florida is “vastly underrepresented” in the U.S. House of Representatives, and they say correcting the census could add seats to the state’s delegation.
