Democrats have landed on a legal strategy that just might net them an additional congressional seat in New York for the midterms.
Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias filed a lawsuit Monday, on behalf of four voters, that alleges New York’s 11th District unconstitutionally weakens the power of Black and Latino voters and should be redrawn.
That district is currently held by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the lone Republican representing New York City. Her seat includes all of Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn.
The lawsuit alleges that the growing Black and Latino populations on Staten Island don’t have the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice, a violation of the state’s constitution and newly enacted state voting rights act.
The map. The proposed remedy, as noted in the lawsuit, is a map that “pairs Staten Island with lower Manhattan.” That suggests that Democrats are going for a targeted approach, urging the court to order a partial swap between Malliotakis’ district and that of Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, who represents lower Manhattan and western Brooklyn.
In a statement, Goldman said he’d be willing to run in a district that included Staten Island.
“If Staten Island is drawn into my district, then I will be ready to step up and take the fight for democracy and a Democratic House majority to Nicole Malliotakis’ doorstep,” Goldman said. “Nothing can stand in the way of us defeating Donald Trump.”
The final decision is up to the New York courts, but Democrats believe a likely outcome is that the Brooklyn portions of Goldman’s and Malliotakis’s districts combine into one seat. Lower Manhattan and Staten Island then form another.
New York Democrats have been told Goldman’s new district would likely have a PVI of around D+10 in that scenario, according to sources close to the process, keeping it relatively safe.
The strategy. New York has been the site of redistricting nightmares for Democrats. A state court struck down the legislature’s redistricting proposal in 2022, calling it an illegal partisan gerrymander. A lawsuit gave them another chance to draw in 2024 but Democrats were hesitant to get too aggressive and push their luck.
This lawsuit is alleging racial gerrymandering, prescribing a much narrower fix. Democrats hope to avoid the claims of partisan gerrymandering that dogged them previously.
New York is the home state of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who has been leaning on blue states to redraw their maps. But New York is prohibited from mid-decade redistricting unless ordered to do so by a court.
A lawsuit to reopen the redistricting process was long expected.
