Democrats in the New York state Legislature took the first procedural step Monday toward rewriting the state’s redistricting rules, introducing a constitutional amendment that could permit them to draw more aggressively gerrymandered congressional lines for the 2028 elections. The proposal, which lawmakers filed on June 2, begins a two-year process that, under New York’s constitution, requires passage by two successive separately elected legislatures before going to voters as a statewide ballot referendum.
As MSI previously reported, Democrats across the country have said they need to counter a wave of Republican redistricting that has reshaped House maps in Southern states, but New York’s current rules present a higher barrier than most. The state constitution bars drawing lines that favor a political party, a restriction that state Democrats said has limited their ability to match GOP map-making efforts elsewhere.
The amendment would remove that prohibition, potentially giving the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul the authority to craft a map that gives the party an advantage in the state’s congressional delegation. New York currently has 26 House seats, and Democrats hold 19 of them under a map that the state’s highest court struck down as unconstitutionally gerrymandered in 2023, leading to a court-drawn compromise plan.
Democrats argued the constitutional change is necessary to counterbalance Republican-controlled states that have drawn maps benefiting GOP candidates over the past year. Republican gains in Southern states including Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas have shifted the national House map, and New York Democrats said they need the same flexibility to protect the party’s majority.
The two-year timeline means the process cannot affect the 2026 midterm elections. Even if the legislature approves the amendment again in the 2027–2028 session and voters ratify it, new lines would not take effect until the 2028 election cycle.
Republican opponents of the proposal said it would lead to partisan gerrymandering that disenfranchises voters. Representative Mike Lawler, a New York Republican whose Hudson Valley district is considered competitive, criticized the move as an attempt by Democrats to insulate their incumbents from electoral accountability.
The proposal is likely to face legal challenges regardless of the referendum outcome. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that partisan gerrymandering presents a political question not subject to federal court review, but state courts in New York and elsewhere have found that extreme partisan map-making violates state constitutional protections.