Republicans and Democrats are gearing up for a public campaign in 2027 after state lawmakers took the first step to allow New York to draw new congressional districts for 2028.

Democrats who control the state Assembly and Senate approved a constitutional amendment late Wednesday that removes the state’s anti-gerrymandering prohibitions and allows New York to follow other states in redrawing their lines before the release of a new U.S. Census. The amendment must be approved again by legislators next year, and then by voters, before it can take effect.

As a result, both supporters and opponents of the amendment said they plan to spend big on advertisements and other campaigning during what is normally a sleepy year in the electoral cycle. The stakes are high: Mid-decade redistricting in states across the country is having a major effect on control of the U.S. House of Representatives, officials in both parties said.

“I think there'll be a national interest as well as a New York State interest,” said New York State Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar, who opposes the amendment. “We will have the financial ammunition to get the message out.”

New York State Democratic Committee Chair Jay Jacobs said his party would work with state legislators to marshal resources in support of the amendment.

“We need to make sure we have enough votes to come out and pass it,” he said.

Members of both parties referenced the coming referendum during floor debates on Wednesday. Republicans voted unanimously against the amendment, saying it would have sweeping effects that would enable a Democratic power grab.

“This is the purest form of gerrymandering, just to gain a political advantage, just so politicians can decide who to get into office,” said state Sen. Steve Chan, a Brooklyn Republican. “My district doesn't like it, I don't like it, and I vote no.”

Redistricting normally happens once every 10 years after the release of the U.S. Census. Democrats said they needed to act because of mid-cycle actions in Republican-controlled states like Texas.

At President Donald Trump's urging, Republican officials there redrew the Congressional map last year in a way that analysts say could let the GOP gain up to five seats. Voters in California and Virginia, which have Democratic governors, passed referenda approving new maps favorable to their party.

Then the U.S. Supreme Court touched off a new round of map-making in southern states when it ruled that Louisiana districts drawn to encourage Black representation were “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

“I've been concerned about the Supreme Court's decision. I'm concerned about Republicans trying to wipe out Black members of Congress,” state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat who sponsors the amendment. “I'm concerned about a lot of things, but I think this thing about asking New York to play fair while everybody else is playing ruthless – I think it's not right to ask us to do that.”

Democrats as recently as last week said they were considering passing multiple redistricting amendments this year, according to Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris, a Queens Democrat. He said one option would have been to simply allow mid-decade redistricting in 2028, and another would also include more substantial changes to the redistricting process.

Lawmakers ended up introducing and approving a single amendment that changes the criteria for drawing districts and makes it easier for lawmakers themselves to take the redistricting pen from the current Independent Redistricting Commission.

U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries tasked U.S. Rep. Joe Morelle, a Rochester Democrat, to help develop the amendment with state lawmakers. Morelle said advancing a single amendment “removes any confusion and takes away any guesswork” about what the party hopes to do.

“This is an ongoing plan by the Republican Party. They're going to make partisan redistricting, hyperpartisan redistricting part of their playbook,” he said. “Why not address some of the structural challenges I think that people became aware of in the last several years?”

Heastie has fumed openly about the current system for several years. The Independent Redistricting Commission deadlocked in 2022, paving the way for Democratic lawmakers to draw their own districts as well as a congressional map.

But the New York State Court of Appeals threw out the congressional map, saying it violated the anti-gerrymandering provisions that the current amendment would remove. Instead, a court-appointed expert drew districts that in 2022 helped Republicans net three U.S. House seats in New York and retake the chamber majority.

Grace Rauh, executive director of good government group Citizens Union, said the amendment was unnecessarily broad. She said it is indefensible that the anti-gerrymandering provisions would be removed for state legislative seats as well as congressional districts.

“Lawmakers had other options,” she said. “Instead, they went for this nuclear option. It is incredibly extreme. It is not needed in response to the national redistricting fight. And so, we're really alarmed that they're not pursuing or contemplating a much more measured response here.”

Morelle said his party would frame the question about the amendment around Trump and his agenda.

“We'll make the case that the interests of New York need to be protected and that we will not sit idly by while Donald Trump and his MAGA minions destroy the map in the United States to disadvantage us permanently,” he said.

Republicans said that voters enacted the current redistricting system in 2014, and in 2021 voted down an attempt by Democrats to give lawmakers more power over the process.

“ People know that they don't want politicians choosing their representatives. They want to choose their representatives, and they're tired of the political games,” said state Sen. Mark Walczyk, a Watertown Republican. “ I have all the confidence in the world in the voters of the state of New York. They're going to reject you again.”