The messy, Democrat-on-Democrat fight over New York’s congressional map, explained

2022 was already shaping up to be a really tough year for Democrats as they contend with President Joe Biden’s unpopularity, inflation, and historically bad odds for the party of the incumbent president in the midterms. The last thing they needed was a big internal fight to overshadow what looked like one of their bright spots this year.

But that’s what they are getting in New York.

On Friday, a state court is expected to finalize new congressional maps that, if adopted without changes from the draft version released earlier this week, would suddenly pit high-ranking Democratic incumbents against each other in the August 23 primaries. The version originally proposed by Democrats in the state legislature largely avoided those primary fights and would have likely netted Democrats an additional three House seats. Democrats seemed to finally have figured out how to combat Republican advantages carved out through gerrymandering — the practice of redrawing electoral districts for partisan advantage — and New York was to be exhibit A of that success. But the map Democrats signed off on was invalidated by the state Court of Appeals.

Among New York’s current congressional delegation, there are 19 Democrats, seven Republicans, and one open seat. New York lost one seat based on the results of the 2020 census. With the map they initially proposed for this round of redistricting, Democrats were hoping to win 22 seats, leaving Republicans with four. But under the new map, they could have as much of a split as 15 Democrats to 11 Republicans, according to the Cook Political Report.