The Short Answer: Twenty-Six Districts
As of the 2024 and 2026 elections, New York has 26 congressional districts. This is a decrease from the 27 seats it held for the previous decade. The state lost a seat following the 2020 U.S. Census, which revealed that its population growth was slower than in other states. In a painful twist for the state, census officials noted that if just 89 more people had been counted, New York would have kept its 27th seat. This reduction set the stage for a contentious, multi-year battle over where to draw the new lines.
A Commission Created to Fail?
The process was supposed to be different this time. In 2014, New York voters approved a constitutional amendment to create a 10-member Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) to handle the map-drawing process, intending to reduce partisan
gerrymandering. The commission is composed of members appointed by both Democratic and Republican legislative leaders. However, when it came time to draw maps for 2022, the commission deadlocked along party lines and failed to produce a consensus plan. This failure kicked the process back to the Democrat-controlled state legislature, which promptly drew a map heavily favoring its own party.
The Courts Intervene—Twice
What followed was a flurry of legal challenges. Republicans sued, and in a landmark decision, New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, struck down the legislature's map in April 2022. The court ruled the map was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander and that the legislature had illegally bypassed the commission's process. A court-appointed special master, Jonathan Cervas, was then tasked with drawing a neutral map for the 2022 elections. That map was widely seen as more competitive and helped Republicans flip several key seats in New York, contributing to their narrow takeover of the U.S. House. But the story wasn't over. Democrats filed a new lawsuit, arguing the special master's map was only a temporary fix. In late 2023, the Court of Appeals agreed, ordering the IRC to reconvene and try again to draw a permanent map for the 2024 elections and beyond.
So, What Did Change in the End?
After the court order, the Independent Redistricting Commission reconvened and, this time, successfully passed a new map in February 2024. The Democratic-controlled legislature, however, rejected that map and passed its own slightly modified version, which Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law on February 28, 2024. This is the map currently in effect for the 2026 elections. Unlike the aggressive 2022 attempt, this final map was more modest. It made changes to shore up a couple of swing districts for Democrats but left most of the state's 26 districts largely intact compared to the special master's plan. While a last-minute lawsuit in early 2026 challenged one district, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the current map to remain in place for the upcoming elections.
