Florida Senate

The Florida Senate is the upper house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida. The Senate is composed of 40 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 470,032.

The Senate convenes at the State Capitol in Tallahassee. Senators serve four-year terms, and are restricted by term limits, confining them to two four-year terms (eight years).

Membership

In most cases, Senators in odd-numbered districts are elected in years divisible by four (in tandem with U.S. Presidential elections), and Senators in even-numbered districts are elected alongside elections for Florida's statewide offices. However, to reflect the results of the Census and revisions in Senate district boundaries, all Senators are up for re-election in those years ending in the digit 2 (e.g., 2002, 2012). Thus, odd-number district Senators were elected to two-year terms in 2002, and even-number district Senators will be elected to two-year terms in 2012.

Session

The entire Florida Legislature meets every year in a session beginning on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March and lasting 60 calendar days. Special sessions may be called either by the Governor or by the leaders of both chambers acting jointly. Florida Senate and Florida House districts are both organized by population over certain geographic areas. Although there are exactly three times as many members of the House (120) as in the Senate (40),...
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