New York court releases new congressional map after Democratic-drawn lines were blocked - CNN

The map, which makes a few changes to the special master's earlier draft, would still create 15 US House districts that favor Democrats and around half a dozen competitive seats.

The open 10th District has attracted a wave of interest from local politicians, including from former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who announced a run on Friday, and state Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, who entered the race a day later.

McAllister defended the special master's draft and final proposals, writing in the court order that "unfortunately some people have encouraged the public to believe that now the court gets to create its own gerrymandered maps that favor Republicans."

He said that with the state's 2012-drawn lines, eight Republicans were elected to Congress and the initial Democratic-drawn map for this round of redistricting "would have only favored four Republicans being elected."

The judge said the new map would create "eight competitive districts" and "three districts in which Republicans will likely win."

One key change to the draft map took place in Brooklyn, where the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights communities, which had each been split in the previous version, were placed whole back into their respective districts.

Hakeem Jeffries and Yvette Clarke, both of whom are Black, would be forced to run for the same seat.

"The restoration of the iconic neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant into one Congressional District is a small step," Jeffries said in a statement Saturday, before adding, "We will not let modest changes to a severely flawed draft map whitewash the violence done to communities of color throughout New York City."

The special master's final map also included changes on Long Island.