Jeffries Surrogate Presses New York Democrats for Fast Action on Redistricting

Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) said on May 5 that New York’s legislature should make sure that a state constitutional amendment enabling mid-decade redistricting gets its first passage before lawmakers adjourn the first week of June.

Dispatched to Albany on May 5 by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Morelle laid out the timeline at a press conference after meeting with Democratic leadership in the state, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, and state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

“We would like them to make sure that, to the greatest extent possible, whatever first passage happens, it happens before the first week in June when they’re scheduled to adjourn for the summer,” Morelle said.

Hochul, in remarks at a separate event earlier in the day, said any constitutional change enabling mid-decade redistricting in New York would require passage by two consecutive sessions of the Legislature before going on the ballot for voters to ratify.

“I want to make sure that New Yorkers have a chance to vote on this—this will not just be done by the legislature,” Hochul said.

“I want to remind everyone this will be a decision of the voters. We’re just giving them that option. And this does not have to be a partisan fight. It’s a fight for our democracy.”

Morelle said that one specific change Democrats want is a constitutionally sound state mechanism that would allow New York to redraw its congressional map mid-decade in response to similar action by other states.

“Our Constitution prohibits that, so that’s one of the changes that we would want to make, whether it’s a trigger caused by other states’ activity, or some other mechanism, but to ensure that there’s a way to look at the maps anew in the mid-decade as a response to what’s happening,” Morelle said.

The push follows the Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down Louisiana’s congressional map because race was the predominant factor in drawing the lines. It also follows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s signing into law on May 4 a new congressional map that could add four Republican-leaning seats to the state’s congressional delegation.

After meeting with Morelle, Hochul reaffirmed New York’s commitment to the broader fight but did not address Morelle’s specific June timeline.

“We did not start this fight, but we’re prepared to end it,” Hochul said.

Hochul argued that the Callais ruling has put seats held by black members of Congress in the southern United States at risk.

Asked whether his push amounted to partisan gerrymandering of New York’s lines in response to similar moves by Republican-led states, Morelle said he supported efforts for “independent” and “fair” redistricting nationwide but would not concede ground to Republicans.

“I voted for independent redistricting. I believe in independent redistricting. I just don’t believe in it for some of the states and not all of the states,” Morelle said.

Morelle declined twice to say whether Jeffries personally supports partisan gerrymandering when it benefits Democrats, telling reporters he would not put words in the leader’s mouth.

The visit followed Jeffries’s May 4 announcement of what he is calling the New York Democracy Project, a push to recruit New York into the mid-decade redistricting effort after similar moves by Texas, California, and Virginia. Morelle is the ranking Democrat on the lower chamber’s Committee on House Administration.

The New York State Assembly Republican Conference, in a May 5 statement on X, said the only gerrymandering concern in the state was “the latest efforts by Albany Democrats to further entrench their own carefully manipulated district maps.”

The GOP conference also pointed to 2024 U.S. Census Bureau data that it said showed that New York lost 130,145 residents, and accused Democrats of being “completely out of touch with the issues” facing the state.

National Republican Redistricting Trust Executive Director Adam Kincaid told The Epoch Times after Jeffries’s announcement on May 4 that the broader effort is akin to “Hochul and Jeffries’s annual attempt to illegally gerrymander New York and roll back the state’s twice-voter-approved redistricting commission.”

The offices of Heastie, Stewart-Cousins, and Gianaris did not respond to requests for comment.