Party Like It’s 2008?

New York Democrats’ gerrymander of its forthcoming 26 congressional districts puts the party in a strong position to carry 22 of them this November, or 84.6 percent. If executed at the ballot box, that would give New York its second-largest Democratic U.S. House delegation in state history following the election of 2008 when Democrats won 89.7 percent of its seats (26 of 29). Democrats have accounted for three-quarters of the state delegation’s U.S. House seats just three other times in New York history – following the elections of 2006 (23 of 29 seats, 79.3 percent), 2012 (21 of 27, 77.8 percent), and 2018 (21 of 27, 77.8 percent). The low water mark for Democrats came after the Election of 1848 when they won just one of 34 seats, or 2.9 percent (Hiram Walden carried the Otsego/Schoharie-based 21st CD).