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In the wake of redistricting efforts in several states in advance of the 2026 midterm elections, New York State Democrats are filing a lawsuit that would alter the shape and, possibly, the representation of the 11th Congressional district. That district, currently the territory of one of New York State’s few Republican representatives, Nicole Malliotakis, serves Staten Island and part of Brooklyn; the lawsuit would add territory in Manhattan to its boundaries. Malliotakis sees this as a power grab by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, simply to throw cold water on the second half of President Donald Trump’s current term in office. Malliotakis appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to explain why the lawsuit must be stopped at all costs.
Malliotakis told host Larry Mendte that the lawsuit should be dismissed as nothing more than a nuisance ploy by Democrats to shift power in the House: “The lawsuit is obviously very frivolous, and the solution that they offer to tie Staten Island with Manhattan would actually put more white liberals in the district, not minorities, and that’s the ludicrous part of it. But in addition to that, I’m the first Hispanic to actually represent this district. To say that, somehow, this district disenfranchises minorities because it doesn’t elect a Democrat is really outrageous, and so there is no legal basis behind this lawsuit.”
Malliotakis pointed out the irony that the district is already home to more Democrats than Republicans as proof that the move is for show: “It’s less about me and more about the people who deserve to be able to elect their representative, not the other way around, which the Democrats are trying to set up a system where there’ll never be another Republican elected in the City of New York, regardless of what the people of Staten Island have to say about it.”
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