CITY JOURNAL: New York Democrats Play Fast and Loose With Redistricting

“All’s fair in love and war. We’re following the rules. We do redistricting every 10 years,” said Governor Kathy Hochul at a public event in late July. “But if there are other states violating the rules and trying to give themselves an advantage, all I’ll say is, I’m going to look at it closely.” Hochul was hinting at a tit-for-tat in response to Texas Republicans’ special legislative session focused on redistricting, and similar efforts underway in Ohio. She’s just one of several blue state governors considering a mid-decade redistricting.

Hochul’s rhetoric reflects a simple truth: New York’s election process has become a partisan battleground, marked by one-sided map grabs, delayed special elections, and now a push to amend the constitution for mid-decade redraws. Like most state constitutions, New York’s permits redistricting once every ten years, tied to the decennial Census. That means the next scheduled redraw should take place in 2030.

We should hope that it will go better than the chaotic post-2020 redistricting. In 2014, the Democratic majority in the legislature passed a constitutional amendment creating an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC). The commission’s ostensible purpose was to prevent partisan gerrymandering. But it was seemingly designed to fail, with an evenly divided membership and politically influenced appointments, which inevitably resulted in deadlock.

Predictably, the IRC was tied in early 2022, allowing the Democratic supermajority in the legislature to redraw New York’s 26 congressional districts under a law that Hochul had recently signed. The State Court of Appeals in Harkenrider v.Hochul struck down the legislature’s map for blatant gerrymandering, which included diluting GOP-dominated Suffolk and Nassau Counties by combining them across the Long Island Sound with Democratic strongholds in Westchester and the Bronx.

Subsequently, a federal judge appointed a special master to redraw the maps, helping Republicans gain a total of four congressional seats in the 2022 election. After another lawsuit claimed the maps were only interim, state courts gave the IRC a second chance. The revised maps were signed into law in time for the 2024 elections, in which New York Republicans did not fare as well—three of those seats swung back to Democrats, and NY–03 flipped blue in the special election to replace George Santos.

This is just one example of New York State Democrats’ long history of electoral mischief. In 2015, then-governor Andrew Cuomo delayed calling a special election for New York’s 11th Congressional District after Republican representative Michael Grimm resigned. Staten Islanders sued, claiming it violated their right to representation. Eventually, a federal judge ruled Cuomo’s delay unconstitutional.

Earlier this year, Hochul and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries tried a similar maneuver, considering a measure to extend the timeline for special elections shortly before Republican representative Elise Stefanik planned to vacate her seat to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the UN. This move aimed to grant Democrats an extra 70 to 80 days to organize and fundraise at a time when House Republicans had a razor-thin majority. Ultimately, Stefanik decided to remain in Congress, mooting the endeavor.

New York Democrats frequently label political opponents as threats to democracy. Yet they have amended the state constitution when politically advantageous and have suggested doing so in response to similar actions by Republican-controlled states. Even New York Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs has expressed skepticism of such maneuvering, stating, “the constitution seems pretty clear that this redistricting process should be done every 10 years. I don’t know where someone could interpret it as something you can do every two years.”

The recently introduced redistricting amendment to the state constitution needs approval by both legislative chambers in two consecutive sessions, followed by voter approval in a referendum. The soonest this constitutional amendment could take effect is 2028, though litigation before the Court of Appeals could accelerate the timeline because the state constitution allows mid-decade redistricting if courts invalidate the maps.

At best, the current timeline via constitutional amendment would provide state Democrats new congressional maps just two years early—meaning that redistricting wouldn’t affect the 2026 midterm elections.

Amending the constitution to allow mid-decade redistricting and repeatedly attempting to change election laws just before special elections are reckless moves that erode public trust in our institutions and the rule of law. If state lawmakers truly want to safeguard democracy in New York, they should respect the decennial redistricting cycle and existing legal framework—not rewrite the rules for political advantage.