Democrats who control the New York state legislature on Tuesday unveiled a new congressional map that is expected to give their party a moderate boost in their effort to flip the US House after November’s elections.
The map improves Democrats’ chances of picking up seats in as many as two districts, experts say, but it avoided an aggressive partisan gerrymander that could have dramatically boosted the party’s prospects of a House takeover. The state is considered an epicenter of the fight over control of the House, where Republicans hold a paper-thin majority. GOP gains in the Empire State in 2022 helped Republicans seize control of the lower chamber in that year’s midterm elections.
“The map makes modest changes at the margins,” said Jeffrey Wice, a redistricting expert and an adjunct professor at New York Law School. “It’s by no means the type of plan that Republicans feared.”
The district lines, which lawmakers hope to quickly approve, were released a day after Democrats in the legislature rejected a map crafted by an independent redistricting commission, in favor of drawing their own.
Lawmakers left in place the commission’s lines for a central New York seat represented by freshman Republican Brandon Williams that had included more territory favorable to Democrats, likely resulting in a Democratic pickup in the fall. But Democrats in the state legislature also made a Hudson Valley seat now held by Republican Marc Molinaro more competitive than the commission’s compromise map had.
Aides to Williams and Molinaro did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Additionally, lawmakers boosted Democrat Tom Suozzi’s 3rd Congressional District on Long Island, which Democrats flipped earlier this month in a special election to succeed expelled former Rep. George Santos.
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