New York Democrats, who control the state legislature with a super majority, approved a new congressional map on Wednesday with district lines that will slightly improve their chance of winning a majority in the House in November’s election—a move that comes days after they blocked a map made by the state’s redistricting committee.
New York Democrats approved a new congressional map on Wednesday after rejecting a map drafted by a ... [+]
The newly approved map—which still requires Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature—will help Democrats only slightly in November’s election as opposed to a previous map created by Democrats in 2022 that gerrymandered against Republicans and was shot down by courts.
The map approved Wednesday would likely swing two districts to the left, the New York Times reported, increasing the odds Democrats would overcome the Republicans’ thin majority in the House, though some expected Democrats to attempt to shift as many as six districts.
On Monday, leaders rejected a congressional map that was drafted by a bipartisan state commission and would have kept potential battleground districts in the New York City suburbs mostly untouched.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the House minority leader, said in a statement the new map “more meaningfully delivers the type of fair representation that the people of New York State deserve.”
- That’s how many House seats New York has, and all of them are up for election in November. Right now, Democrats control 15 of those, while Republicans hold another 10 and one remains vacant.
Typically, Congressional maps are drawn every decade based on the census results, but an appeals court ruled the last congressional map drawn was overly partisan and gerrymandered against Republicans. A temporary map was used in the 2022 midterm elections and allowed for Republicans to flip some districts, but the appeals court ordered a new map had to be created by Feb. 28 to be used in this year’s elections. By rejecting a map presented by the bipartisan state commission earlier this week, New York Democrats gave themselves a second chance at drawing a map that would favor them—and many thought they’d be more aggressive in securing Democratic seats.
Whether the new map faces a challenge from Republicans.