Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis blasted a Democrat-backed lawsuit that is seeking to redraw Staten Island’s congressional district to include Lower Manhattan — telling The Post it’s a partisan attempt to “silence” Big Apple conservatives.
The gerrymandering suit, filed by the DC-based Marc Elias Group in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, claims the current drawing of the NY-11 “dilutes black and Latino voting strength” by consistently electing Republicans and that the remedy is to redraw the district to include the Democrat stronghold of lower Manhattan.
“It’s a completely frivolous nonsensical lawsuit that has zero merit,” Malliotakis said in her first public comments about the lawsuit that could push her out of Congress, where she’s served since 2021.
“This is the Democrat’s latest attempt to try and silence the voters of the only district that elected a Republican and change the makeup of the only competitive seat in the entire city of New York.”
NY-11 is the only Republican seat in the five boroughs and previously elected Democrat Max Rose to the House of Representatives in 2019.
The NY-10, which includes the chunk of lower Manhattan below 14th street that the lawsuit is seeking to join with Staten Island’s district, is currently represented by Democrat Rep. Dan Goldberg and last elected a Republican, medical doctor and lawyer Lester Volk, in 1920.
Malliotakis further questioned the supposed racial dilution alleged in the current maps which were just approved by the state’s top Democrats Assembly Heastie Carl Heastie and state senate boss Andrea Stewart-Cousins, both of whom are African-American, in advance of the 2024 election.
“For Democrats to somehow now claim that this map disenfranchises minorities is a complete fallacy. It’s ludicrous.”
“It’s clear what they’re trying to do — change the rules, tilt the scale, to give their party an advantage in next year’s elections and this case should be thrown out by the judge,” the Trump-backed rep said.
“They’ve tried everything to change the make-up of this district so it is more Democrat-leaning to eliminate the only conservative voice [New Yorker’s] have in Washington.”
The lawsuit is the latest in a nationwide gerrymandering push ahead of the 2026 midterm elections that will see all 435 of the seats in the House of Representative up for grabs with the Republicans currently holding onto a slim 219-212 majority in the lower house, according to Ballotpedia.
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has previously endorsed her party’s attempts to favorably redraw districts in the Empire State.
“I may be governor of New York, but I will not sit on the sidelines with timid souls and merely watch while Republicans dismantle democracy. That’s not who we are. And that is certainly not the leadership that this moment calls for,” Hochul wrote in an op-ed in The Houston Chronicle in Aug.
“If [Republicans] rewrite the rules, then so will we,” she said, concluding, “All’s fair in love and war. Bring it on.”
Sources familiar with the lawsuit said the Department of Justice is monitoring the outcome and If the state of New York loses the lawsuit there would be an appeal in federal court to reverse the decision.
Rep. Malliotakis said she is not afraid of a court battle.
“We’ve beat them twice before and we’re gonna do it again whether it be in state court or if we have to elevate this to federal court, potentially even to the Supreme Court.”
“We’ve gone to court now three times, every time I’ve run for reelection we’ve had a redistricting battle,” she said.
The Marc Elias Law Group’s stated mission is “helping Democrats win,” according to its website.
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