NYT-Dems Seek To Boost NY House Seats w/Equal Rights Push

The New York Times is reporting that Democrats are seeking to use a USD20mn push for an Equal Rights Amendment in New York to boost the party's prospect of regaining the four US House of Representatives seats lost in the 2022 midterms, which precipitated the Republicans flipping House control. The story claims that by boosting advertisements for the Equal Rights Amendment, the Dems hope to boost turnout among progressives that could help the party win six swing Congressional districts, including the four lost to the GOP in 2022.

• The four districts that the GOP flipped in 2022 (3rd, 4th, 17th, 19th) and the two potential swing seats (1st and 22nd) all sit either on Long Island, in the northern suburbs of NYC, or in upstate New York. These areas lean much more Republican than NYC itself, making it potentially a more difficult prospect for the Democrats to turn them in 2024. The strategy would appear to be to use the NY ERA vote in 2024 to enhance the party's electoral prospects, given that "Polls have found that pro-choice Democratic voters are more motivated to vote on the issue, and Republicans less so."
• Given the extremely narrow majority for the GOP in the House (just four seats at present), state-level developments such as this that might shift the outcome in a small number of seats could have much broader political and fiscal ramifications post-2024.