Reliably Democratic New York state could end up paving the way for a Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The GOP flipped at least four congressional seats in the state on Election Day, inching the party closer to the net five seat gain they need nationally to secure control of the chamber.

The seats include two on Long Island and two just north of New York City in the Hudson Valley.

What You Need To Know

  • The GOP flipped at least four congressional seats in NY, per the Associated Press, inching the party closer to the net five-seat gain they need to secure control of the U.S. House

  • Come January, at least 10 of the 26 House members from New York will be members of the GOP

  • The initial maps designed by Albany Democrats would have given their party pickup opportunities. But judges threw their final map out, calling it a gerrymander that violated the state’s constitution

  • “We were hoping that New York would be our salvation, and there's a risk that it could be our undoing at the margins,” Rep. Ritchie Torres said

Notably, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who chairs the House Democrats’ campaign efforts during the 2022 midterm cycle, is among those to lose his election bid, according to a projection from the Associated Press.

Maloney conceded defeat in New York’s 17th district to Republican challenger Mike Lawler, a member of the state assembly.

“I don’t like to lose. But my opponent won this race, and he won it fair and square,” he said Wednesday.

Come January, at least 10 of the 26 House members from New York will be members of the GOP.

By comparison, currently the GOP controls just eight of New York’s 27 House seats. (New York is losing a seat in the next Congress as a result of reapportionment after the 2020 census.)

One of the new GOP faces in Washington next year will be George Santos, who is the projected winner in New York’s 3rd district, which stretches from northern Queens to Oyster Bay on the north shore of Nassau County.

“It’s New York, nobody would have ever thought, right?,” Santos said of the Republican gains. “The same old politics weren’t working for New Yorkers, and they voted on change yesterday. Part of that change was voting for new blood into the Congress.”

This is not what the state’s Democrats in Albany had in mind when they began redistricting.

The initial maps they drew would have given Democrats pickup opportunities. But judges threw their final map out, calling it a gerrymander that violated the state’s constitution.

The court named an outside expert to craft more competitive districts instead. Spectrum News profiled several of these competitive races as part of a series in the lead up Election Day.

Incumbent Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, said it is ironic that there appears to have been no red wave this year, except in reliably blue New York.

“We were hoping that New York would be our salvation, and there’s a risk that it could be our undoing at the margins,” he said.

Beyond the maps and new lines, Rep. Lee Zeldin’s strong showing in the governor’s race may have helped his fellow Republicans down the ballot by creating coattails that helped sweep them into office.