Long Island's congressional delegation all red for first time in decades; Dems reflect on what went wrong
MINEOLA, N.Y. - Two congressional seats on Long Island flipped from blue to red, and the consequences will impact the balance of power in Congress. Both of them were in congressional districts that actually favored Democrats.
As CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reports, despite voter enrollment, Long Island's entire congressional delegation is now red.
While Republicans celebrate a Long Island congressional "red wave," Democrats are licking their wounds after two congressional seats flipped.
Long Island will be represented by four House Republicans, even though more voters are registered Democrats. In open seats, Republicans Nick LaLota won the 1st Congressional District, George Santos won in the 3rd, Anthony D'Esposito in the 4th, and incumbent Andrew Garbarino in the 2nd.
"The redistricting map that the Democrats originally pursued backfired," said former Rep. Steve Israel.
Israel, a Democrat, represented Long Island in Congress. He blamed failed efforts to gerrymander as part of a perfect storm. Democratic congressional candidates opposed bail reform and had nothing to do with its state passage, but were linked to it.
"The narrative on Long Island that everybody who went outside needed to go outside with a bottle pepper spray, and that makes for a rather difficult climate for Democrats," Israel said.
Republicans say it wasn't just a narrative; bail reform policy drove voters away.
"I haven't been in the city in over two years," one Long Island resident said.
"When you see an area that's been very dominantly blue and Democratic leaning for so long flip ... That just tells you that the quality of life that the people are seeking on Long Island is not what was being delivered," said Congressman-elect George Santos.
It didn't help that Hochul did poorly in the suburbs, impacting Democratic congressional candidates.
"There was a particular focus by the Zeldin campaign that he needed to drive numbers up really high in Nassau County and Suffolk County. They did a great job mobilizing their base," said former New York State Senator Craig Johnson.
Watch Carolyn Gusoff's report
"New York Democrats seem to not have done as well as Democrats in other parts of the country," said Gregory Wawro, a political science professor at Columbia University. "New York state in general has trended toward the Democrats over the past couple decades, so it's interesting that they underperformed relative to other Democratic candidates throughout the country."
Now, New York Democrats face stark criticism from within their own party.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Assemblymember Zohran Kwami Mamdani even tweeted that the state's Democratic Party needs a new Chairman. Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani both say the party didn't do enough to fight for redistricting that wouldn't been more favorable to Democrats.
"My initial read is that that doesn't seem to really explain what happened in New York," Wawro told CBS2's Tim McNicholas. "Some of those districts that might have been more favorable toward Democrats under a different redistricting plan, it doesn't seem like they changed all that much to lead these races to go Republican."
CBS2 did reach out to the Democratic Party Chairman, Jay Jacobs, and have not heard back.
Meanwhile, for the first time in decades the Long Island congressional delegation will be solid red.
"We want to represent all of Long Island, all of Nassau County, doesn't matter if you supported us yesterday or not," said D'Esposito.
"It could be that Long Island's four seats and a couple of others north of the city could be the difference. Imagine that, a deep blue state like New York costing the Democratic party control of the house," said Lawrence Levy, chairman of suburban studies at Hofstra University.
Wawro says he still sees a path for Democrats to control the House, but a narrow one.
Long Island Democrats are already predicting what they call a "course correction" in two years.
