| State: | Florida |
| District Number: | 5 |
| Image Caption: | Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023 |
| Representative: | John Rutherford |
| Party: | Republican |
| Residence: | Jacksonville |
| English Area: | 3,911[1] |
| Distribution Ref: | [2] |
| Percent Urban: | 83.37 |
| Percent Rural: | 16.63 |
| Population: | 801,685[3] |
| Population Year: | 2022 |
| Median Income: | $84,630 |
| Percent White: | 64.7 |
| Percent Hispanic: | 12.1 |
| Percent Black: | 11.6 |
| Percent Asian: | 6.0 |
| Percent More Than One Race: | 4.8 |
| Percent Other Race: | 0.9 |
| Cpvi: | R+11[4] |
Florida's 5th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Florida. It includes the southeastern area of Jacksonville which comprises areas such as Arlington, East Arlington, Southside, Mandarin, San Jose, and the Beaches. It stretches south to St. Augustine in St. Johns County.
From 2002 to 2013 the district comprised all of Citrus, Hernando, and Sumter counties and most of Lake, Levy, and Pasco counties and portions of Marion and Polk counties. The district included northern exurbs of Tampa and western exurbs of Orlando within the high-growth Interstate 4 Corridor. This iteration of the 5th district is now largely contained in the 11th district.
As defined by the state legislature in 2013 (which lasted until 2017), the 5th district ran from Jacksonville to Orlando; it was considered one of the most-gerrymandered congressional districts in the country.[5] Before 2013, similar territory was included in the 3rd district.
After court-mandated redistricting, the district became a majority-minority district from 2017 to 2023. It extended along Florida's northern boundary from Jacksonville to Tallahassee and included all of Baker, Gadsden, Hamilton and Madison counties and portions of Columbia, Duval, Jefferson, and Leon counties.
The district is currently represented by Republican John Rutherford.
Florida's 3rd congressional district was renumbered to 5th congressional district but was little changed in the redistricting process in 2012, still winding from Orlando in the south to central Jacksonville in the north.[6]
From 1973 to 1993 the erstwhile 3rd district was based in Orange County, including Walt Disney World and most of Orlando. The peculiar shape of the 3rd (now 5th) congressional district dates from reapportionment done by the Florida Legislature after the 1990 U.S. census. The 1993–2012 3rd congressional district was geographically distinctive. Starting from the southern part of the district, it included the Pine Hills area of the Orlando-Kissimmee Metropolitan Area with small pockets of African-American neighborhoods in the cities of Sanford, Gainesville, Palatka, and finally the larger African American communities of Jacksonville.[7] Connecting these areas were regions which are sparsely populated—either expansive rural areas or narrow strips which are only a few miles wide.[8] Barack Obama received 73% of the vote in this district in the 2008 Presidential election.
On July 11, 2014, Florida Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis ruled that this district, along with the neighboring District 10, had been drawn to favor the Republican Party by packing black Democratic voters into District 5.[7] [9] On August 1, Judge Lewis gave Florida's state legislature an Aug. 15 deadline to submit new congressional maps for those two districts.[10]
5th district Representative Corrine Brown issued a statement blasting Lewis's decision on the district map as "seriously flawed",[11] and Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Marcia Fudge sent a sharply worded letter to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel complaining about the party's support for the lawsuit challenging Florida's district maps.[12]
Brown said that "we will go all the way to the United States Supreme Court, dealing with making sure that African Americans are not disenfranchised."[13] Florida House Redistricting Chairman Richard Corcoran, a Republican, said that "consideration of political data is legally required" to ensure that district boundaries would not be so shifted as to not allow African-Americans a chance to elect representatives of their choice.[14]
On appeal, the Florida Supreme Court approved a redrawn version of District 5 on December 2, 2015. That plan went into effect for the 2016 elections.[15] The new district had a dramatically different shape than its predecessor. It now stretched in an east-west configuration along the Georgia border from downtown Jacksonville to Tallahassee. However, it was no less Democratic than its predecessor, as noted in the Florida Supreme Court's final opinion:
| Election results from presidential races | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Office | Results | |
| 1992 | President | Clinton 42–34% | |
| 1996 | President | Clinton 50–37% | |
| 2000 | President | Gore 50–46% | |
| 2004 | President | Bush 58–41% | |
| 2008 | President | McCain 56–43% | |
| 2012 | President | Obama 63–35% | |
| 2016 | President | Clinton 61–35% | |
| 2020 | President | Biden 62–36% | |
| County | Seat | Population | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | Duval | Jacksonville | 1,030,822 | |
| 109 | St. Johns | St. Augustine | 320,110 |
| Member | Party | Years | Cong ress | Electoral history | District location | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District created January 3, 1937 | |||||||||
Joe Hendricks | Democratic | January 3, 1937 – January 3, 1949 | Elected in 1936. Re-elected in 1938. Re-elected in 1940. Re-elected in 1942. Re-elected in 1944. Re-elected in 1946. Retired. | 1937–1943 | |||||
| 1943–1953 | |||||||||
Syd Herlong | Democratic | January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1967 | Elected in 1948. Re-elected in 1950. Re-elected in 1952. Re-elected in 1954. Re-elected in 1956. Re-elected in 1958. Re-elected in 1960. Re-elected in 1962. Re-elected in 1964. Re-elected in 1966. Redistricted to the . | ||||||
| 1953–1963 | |||||||||
| 1963–1973 | |||||||||
| align=left | Edward Gurney | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1969 | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 1966. Retired. | ||||
| align=left | Louis Frey Jr. | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 1969 – January 3, 1973 | Elected in 1968. Re-elected in 1970. Redistricted to the . | ||||
| align=left | Bill Gunter | Democratic | nowrap | January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1975 | Elected in 1972. Retired to run for U.S. senator. | 1973–1983 | |||
| align=left | Richard Kelly | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 1975 – January 3, 1981 | Elected in 1974. Re-elected in 1976. Re-elected in 1978. Lost renomination after involvement in the Abscam scandal. | ||||
Bill McCollum | Republican | January 3, 1981 – January 3, 1993 | Elected in 1980. Re-elected in 1982. Re-elected in 1984. Re-elected in 196. Re-elected in 1988. Re-elected in 1990. Redistricted to the . | ||||||
| 1983–1993 | |||||||||
| align=left | Karen Thurman | Democratic | nowrap | January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2003 | Elected in 1992. Re-elected in 1994. Re-elected in 1996. Re-elected in 1998. Re-elected in 2000. Lost re-election. | 1993–2003 | |||
| align=left | Ginny Brown-Waite | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2011 | Elected in 2002. Re-elected in 2004. Re-elected in 2006. Re-elected in 2008. Retired due to health problems. | 2003–2013 | |||
| align=left | Rich Nugent | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2013 | Elected in 2010. Redistricted to the . | ||||
| align=left | Corrine Brown | Democratic | nowrap | January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2017 | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Lost renomination after criminal indictment. | 2013–2017 | |||
| align=left | Al Lawson | Democratic | nowrap | January 3, 2017 – January 3, 2023 | Elected in 2016. Re-elected in 2018. Re-elected in 2020. Redistricted to the and lost re-election in 2022. | 2017–2023 | |||
| align=left | John Rutherford | Republican | nowrap | January 3, 2023 – present | Redistricted from the and re-elected in 2022. | 2023–present: Most of Jacksonville, along with parts of that city's southern and eastern suburbs and the city of St. Augustine 200px | |||