The Democratic collapse in New York threatens to make the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, puncturing an otherwise history-defying election for the party in power. What’s happening: Republicans won all four House races on Long Island and unseated the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the first time in more than 40 years. Furious Democratic strategists and outside observers say the wounds are self-inflicted. Flashback: New York Democrats’ attempt to aggressively redraw the state map backfired in spectacular fashion this spring when state courts stepped in at the eleventh hour and ordered an independent cartographer to draw more neutral lines.
The move sparked a mad scramble among veteran Democrats — including DCCC Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney — to choose which districts to run in. Maloney ultimately made the controversial decision to run in a neighboring district currently held by Black freshman Congressman Mondaire Jones, who jumped to another district and lost his own primary. “Yes,” Jones tweeted after news broke Wednesday that Maloney had conceded the race to Republican Mike Lawler.
The big picture: With chaos unfolding in the wake of redistricting, New York Democrats spent the rest of the campaign hammered by Republicans on crime and bail reform — strong issues that allowed GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin to run a closer-than-expected race against Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“A good night could have been a great night if New York Democrats hadn’t pushed through redistricting and ignored voters’ concerns about crime and disorder,” former New York City Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson tweeted . “All the warning signs were ignored. And a significant price was paid for that level of incompetence,” Wolfson later told Axios, referring to Long Island’s Democratic losses in the 2021 local elections.
Behind the Scenes: “House losses in New York are at a fever pitch,” an unsolicited New York Democratic source told Axios.
“It’s all the state senate Democrats’ fault for blurring the lines because of Hotchul’s healthy margin. It could cost the Democrats the US House in the end… unreal.” “I don’t think Hochul has created a lot of surround sound for other Democrats running in the state,” another New York Democratic strategist told Axios, echoing criticism of the governor from the final weeks of the campaign. The general also laid the blame at the feet of disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for appointing several of the conservative justices who threw out the Democrats’ redistricting map: “He gets under the surface and makes everything stink.”
What’s next: “I would hope that this would cause some self-reflection and a course correction,” Wolfson told Axios. “Voters are screaming for policy change. We can take these seats back in two years if we address the root causes of these losses in the first place.”
