Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on Attorney General Letitia James to review legal options to challenge the U.S. Census Bureau’s report after it was announced that New York will lose one congressional seat.
Cuomo said that Census takers faced unprecedented challenges last year due to the effect the pandemic has had on the postal service and then-president Donald Trump’s efforts to include a citizenship question that Cuomo called “xenophobic” and an effort to discourage non-citizens and people of color from participating in an attempt to hurt blue states.
New York fell 89 responses short from being able to hold on to the seat. If New York had counted 89 more people, the state would have maintained its 27 House seats. It is the narrowest margin a state has lost a seat in the modern era of the Census.
“So much of our state’s recovery, revitalization, and resilience is dependent on having our voice heard in Washington, and we won’t allow Trump and his cronies to use one of our greatest attributes – our diversity – as an impediment,” said Cuomo. “I’m calling on the Attorney General to review all legal options available to ensure the voice of every New Yorker is fairly and wholly represented in the halls of Congress.”
According to the Census report, New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley and the Capital Region in and around Albany and Saratoga increased in population while all other areas decreased.
