If these legislators had gotten their way, Santos likely would have lost his election despite the staggering underperformance of Democratic House candidates in the state. The Democrats’ map, which New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed into law, gave the 3rd Congressional District a 10-point Democratic advantage, per FiveThirtyEight’s calculation.
The maps were finalized the same day Santos expressed his displeasure on Twitter: May 21, 2022. Early voting began August 13, less than three months later. That’s not much time for a new candidate to seek her party’s nomination (to cut in half the signature requirements), collect the signatures, raise money, advertise and, ultimately, stand up a whole campaign.
Can’t be understated - the NY Courts boneheaded decision to redo the redistricting map less than 12 months before the election, rather than let it go into effect and fix it afterwards like the Ohio Courts did, directly led to the chaos that got Santos elected.
Campaigns don’t pop up overnight, so its no surprise that Democrats and potential Republican challengers couldn’t pull everything together in such a short time.
