Three months after stunning congressional losses in New York, some Democrats say state party leaders have failed to take responsibility for what happened or figure out how to turn things around ahead of 2024.

Republicans flipped four congressional seats in the Empire State during the midterms — two on Long Island and two in the Hudson Valley — providing a buffer for the GOP’s slim majority in the U.S. House.

In the months since, top lawmakers like House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have demanded a post-mortem.

“Independently, I know the members of the New York delegation are going to have our own thoughts about what needs to happen so that there’s a better outcome in New York in 2024,” Jeffries said recently.

What You Need To Know

  • Republicans flipped four congressional seats in the New York during the 2022 midterms, providing a buffer for the GOP’s slim House majority

  • Three months after the election, Rep. Jamaal Bowman said he has not yet heard from NY State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs. "I think I’m the kind of person Jay Jacobs should want to speak to because of the district I represent," he said

  • Next year, the highest profile race on the New York ballot, other than the presidential contest, will be the fight for U.S. Senate. Incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is already sounding upbeat about the chances of a Democratic turnaround

Some progressive Democrats have focused their anger on state Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for instance, re-upped her long-running call for Jacobs to resign the morning after Election Day.

Jacobs has released a 10-page document with his takeaways on what influenced the losses, identifying factors like redistricting, competitive primaries and the Republican focus on crime and bail reform in their campaign messaging. The question of abortion rights, he wrote, did not appear anecdotally to have as much of an electoral impact in New York as it did elsewhere in the country.

The report concludes that Democrats in New York failed to win “swing voters” and Republican turnout was higher. “High Republican turnout was not because our candidates were not progressive enough,” the report states.

However, Jacobs pushes back on the assertion that the state party dropped the ball, writing, “The way-too-early claims that the State Party ‘had no ground game’ or did ‘nothing’ to help bring out the vote was, simply, patently false.”

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a progressive representing parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, said the self-reflection he has seen so far falls short.

“It’s not just self-reflection. It’s also collaboration,” he said in an interview with Spectrum News NY1 earlier this month. “I still haven’t received a call from Jay Jacobs, and I think I’m the kind of person Jay Jacobs should want to speak to because of the district I represent. It is both an urban and suburban district.”

Asked if he wants Jacobs to leave his post, Bowman said, “Yeah, he could go, he could go. But it’s bigger than that… but who are we gonna put in his place? That’s the key. It’s not just one person.”

Jacobs acknowledges he has not spoken with Bowman, but said he is open to it.

“If you look at some of the congressman’s comments about me over the months and years, even before the election… I just haven’t found him, in my judgment, as being too inviting to a conversation with me,” Jacobs said Friday. “I’m more than happy to talk to him. I don’t know him personally.”

Jacobs said he has had conversations with people like Jeffries, plus Queens Reps. Grace Meng and Gregory Meeks.

Meeks agrees on the calls for collaboration, arguing everyone has a role to play in building up the state party, including through fundraising.

Meeks, who is also the Queens Democratic Chairman, said he has spoken with Jacobs and does not oppose him staying put in his role.

“I’ve got questions that we need to continue to push. I’ve things that we want to change and Jay has seemed to be very amenable to listening and working with us,” Meeks said. “It’s not for us to turn on one another in that regard, it’s for us to listen to one another.”

Next year, the highest profile race on the New York ballot, other than the presidential contest, will be the fight for U.S. Senate.

Incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is already sounding upbeat about the chances of a Democratic turnaround, noting she is in touch with local party leaders. She said she is looking forward to coordinating with House candidates on, for instance, messaging and joint campaign mailers.

“I want to lift up these House candidates and try to make sure they have a chance to win,” she said. “Especially in a presidential year, when our turnouts are higher, I think our likelihood of bringing those House seats home is real.”

Whether New York Democrats can pull that off is sure to be one of the big questions heading into 2024.