New York’s ruling Democrats would be allowed to draw new congressional districts in time for the 2028 elections under a proposed amendment to the State Constitution set for a vote this week.
The amendment, introduced late Monday, would also remove the state’s prohibitions on drawing districts to favor incumbents or political parties. It would make it easier for lawmakers themselves to grab the redistricting pen from the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission if it fails to develop a map.
Changes to the State Constitution must be adopted by two crops of successively elected legislators and then approved by voters in a popular referendum. The earliest that any changes could be on the ballot is 2027.
Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris said the changes are needed because of mid-decade redistricting in other states. President Donald Trump kicked off that process last year when he urged Republican lawmakers in Texas to draw new lines that favor the GOP.
Gianaris also cited a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that said Louisiana districts drawn to encourage Black representation were “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”
“Republican states and the Republican Supreme Court have thrown our redistricting processes throughout the country into complete disarray, and it is creating an unfair imbalance in the representation of Congress,” Gianaris said Tuesday. “We thought it was important for New York to get a seat at the table and be responsive to what’s happening.”
If approved, the amendment would let New York join other Democrat-led states including California in adopting new maps favorable to that party. The Empire State would join the national redistricting wars at a time when control of Congress is up in the air, but not in time for this year’s general election.
Republicans accused the Democrats of a power grab. Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra of Nassau County said what’s happening elsewhere shouldn’t be a factor.
“I completely reject the idea that somehow by gerrymandering a district in New York, it makes things better for a New Yorker because of something that happened in some other state,” Ra said.
For decades, New York’s congressional map was worked out between Republicans who controlled the state Senate and Democrats who dominated the state Assembly. Federal judges would take over in the case of an impasse, as happened in 2012.
In 2014 New York voters approved a new Independent Redistricting Commission to handle the process and added strict anti-gerrymandering provisions to the state Constitution. Unlike other states, the New York constitution explicitly says maps are to be drawn after the once-a-decade release of a new U.S. Census.
Democrats controlled all the levers of New York’s government in 2022. When the Independent Redistricting Commission deadlocked, Democratic lawmakers passed a map that heavily favored their party.
The state’s top court ruled it unconstitutional, and a court-appointed expert drew districts that in 2022 helped Republicans net three seats in New York and re-take the chamber majority. Democrats sued for a redo and won new lines in 2024 that observers said slightly favored the party.
The amendment removes requirements that districts be “as compact as possible” but maintains that they maintain “communities of interest.” A section which says districts can’t be drawn to discourage competition or favor one political party would be deleted by the amendment.
Members of Congress, some of whom previously served in the state Legislature, have been visiting the state Capitol in recent weeks to lobby state lawmakers for changes. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat, sent his fellow U.S. Rep. Joe Morelle of Rochester to meet with Gov. Kathy Hochul.
In a statement, Jeffries applauded legislators and called the amendment “forceful.”
“This is just the beginning of our decisive response to the Jim Crow-like tactics unleashed by the Supreme Court when it gutted voting rights in America,” he said. “We will ensure that there are free and fair elections moving forward. The Empire State will strike back.”
Hochul, a Democrat, has said she wants to remove New York’s anti-gerrymandering provisions.
“I don’t feel like I should be handcuffed in a fight for our democracy,” she said last month.
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Rockland County Republican, denounced the coming amendment. He said New York Democrats kicked off the mid-decade redistricting with their 2024 changes, which came in response to a court ruling.
“Democrats in New York have tried multiple times, multiple times to change the maps, multiple times to get a partisan advantage in New York because they have absolute power and they think they can get away with it,” he said.
Both Ra and Lawler said they would wage an intense campaign against any ballot initiative.
“Obviously, this is a national fight,” Lawler said. “I would expect that there will be a lot of money poured in to defeat any effort by the Democrats. And I’m sure the Democrats will spend tens of millions of dollars trying to win the ballot initiative. That’s just a reality of where we are today.”
