Hochul Discusses Court Ruling
New York Governor Kathy Hochul may talk about “upholding democracy,” but her latest push to redraw congressional maps before 2030 shows she’s perfectly willing to bulldoze her own state’s constitution when it’s politically convenient. In a Fox News Sunday interview with Shannon Bream, Hochul brushed off questions about New York’s ironclad prohibition on mid-decade redistricting—ignoring that the courts have already smacked down her party for unconstitutional gerrymandering after the 2020 census.
Instead of addressing the legal barrier head-on, Hochul went on a political detour, railing against Donald Trump, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, tariffs, Medicaid, and even tossing in a bizarre claim that “two billion more” people are on unemployment. When Bream pressed her again, Hochul’s solution was simple: “We’ll put it to the people. We amend constitutions. We just did it a few years ago.”
Here’s Jerry Nadler’s 2 NYC districts - connected by Battery Park, the Battery tunnel, and a couple of miles of water front parks. Jerrymandered! pic.twitter.com/ck4waXRpy8
— Carl Schmalenberger (@schmally98) May 9, 2022
That’s a selective telling of the truth. New Yorkers have been asked before—multiple times—and have repeatedly rejected giving lawmakers the power to draw their own maps. In 2014, voters approved a constitutional amendment creating an independent redistricting commission and explicitly banning partisan gerrymandering.
When Democrats saw that rule as an obstacle ahead of the 2020 census, they tried to sneak in a “fix” through another ballot question, asking voters to let the legislature take over if the commission deadlocked. The voters said no.
The legislature’s response? Pass the rejected language into law anyway. And—surprise—the commission promptly deadlocked, handing the mapmaking job to lawmakers, who produced districts so aggressively partisan that even the New York Times mocked Jerry Nadler’s sprawling, serpentine district as “comically contorted.”
Hochul the Hypocrite got steamrolled this morning when she stuttered into oblivion when asked about the Hochulmander - her last two illegal and unconstitutional attempts to gerrymander districts that were thrown out by the courts and the people of NY.
She got exposed for her… pic.twitter.com/FwMm779pTD
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) August 10, 2025
The New York Court of Appeals shredded that scheme in 2022, calling the process “procedurally unconstitutional” and the maps “substantively unconstitutional” for their blatant partisan intent. A court-appointed special master had to clean up the mess for the 2022 cycle, and the IRC did its job for 2024.
Now, Hochul is back, claiming her administration “followed the rules” while accusing Republicans of hypocrisy. She even dropped a carefully loaded line—“just go find five seats for him”—designed to evoke Trump’s infamous call to Georgia’s secretary of state, planting the idea that GOP-led redistricting is equivalent to election theft.