House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Tuesday threw his support behind a proposed New York constitutional amendment that would overhaul the state’s redistricting process, casting the effort as a response to Republican-led map redrawing in other states and declaring that “the Empire State will strike back.”First reported by Politico, the proposal would amend New York’s constitution to allow lawmakers to redraw congressional districts before the next scheduled redistricting cycle and loosen some of the restrictions governing the process.“Democrats promised a forceful, ongoing and multi-state response to Republican efforts to gerrymander the national congressional map and rig House elections,” Jeffries said in a statement. “New York State just delivered a powerful one.”
The amendment would make significant changes to the state’s redistricting rules, according to Politico, including removing constitutional language barring districts from being drawn to favor or disfavor political parties. The proposal would also allow lawmakers to revisit congressional districts before the next census under certain circumstances.
Jeffreies thanked New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), and Democratic lawmakers for “aggressively pushing back” against what he called “Donald Trump’s corrupt scheming.”
