Senate President says New Jersey redistricting is on the table as red states redraw maps

As Republican-led states around the country rush to redraw their congressional maps to add new red seats, Senate President Nick Scutari (D-Linden) is now saying he’s open to the possibility of New Jersey responding in kind, though any such changes would have to be for the 2028 elections rather than 2026.

At a Democratic primary debate for the 7th congressional district last night, Scutari told the audience that it’s “time for New Jersey to not be on the sidelines” in the nationwide redistricting war. That aligns him with Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who said on CNN on May 1 that she was open to mid-decade redistricting; Scutari said he’s also spoken with Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Woodbridge) about the idea.

“We can’t just let states like Texas [redraw maps] when New Jersey can be in that fight,” Scutari said. “We’re having active discussions, and I’m in favor of that.”

New Jersey’s congressional delegation currently stands at nine Democrats and three Republicans, in part thanks to a map that was, controversially, drawn by Democratic members of the 2021 redistricting commission to shore up several of the party’s incumbents. If Democrats want to expand their advantage, any new map would have to carve up the state’s political geography even further.

The party already has a solid shot at flipping Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield)’s highly competitive 7th district this year, though a redraw could make it easier for them to hold in the future. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis)’s Republican-leaning district could be made bluer, but only if Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) agrees to take on new red turf; Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester)’s seat in deep-red Ocean County is extremely hard to eliminate without drawing a horrific-looking map, so he’s more likely to be secure. 

President Donald Trump’s administration began the unprecedented effort to redraw maps last summer, persuading Texas to add new GOP-leaning seats. Several states on both sides of the aisle, including California and Virginia for Democrats and Missouri, Florida, Indiana, and North Carolina for Republicans, followed suit in the months that followed, with varying degrees of success.

The net effect of the battle looked like a draw until the Supreme Court issued a ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act’s protections for majority-minority districts, which has prompted several Southern states to carve up majority-Black seats and give white Republicans a leg up. The decision prompted many Democratic-led states that had stayed out of the first phase of the redistricting war, among them New Jersey, to take a new look at their own maps.

Any such redraw in New Jersey, however, would not come in time to affect this year’s races for Congress. That’s because the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission is enshrined in the state constitution, and would need to be undone by a statewide referendum vote in either 2026 or 2027.

If a three-fifths supermajority of legislators in both chambers agree to put such an amendment on the ballot – Democrats do currently control more than three-fifths of the Senate and Assembly – it could go before voters this year; with simple majorities, Democrats would have to pass it both this year and next year and put it on the 2027 ballot instead. Either way, any new map wouldn’t be able to come into effect until the 2028 elections.

Passing such an amendment through the legislature may be a heavy lift in a staid Democratic majority that has not shown much appetite for redistricting thus far – though if Sherrill and Scutari work to exert their considerable influence, many legislators would likely line up behind them. There are also open questions over what the new mechanisms for drawing maps would look like and how willing the state’s sitting House members would be to have their districts radically overhauled.