After a whirlwind week in politics, New York Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis is weighing in on gerrymandering fights and more twists in the New York City mayor’s race.
Malliotakis, the city’s lone House Republican, represents Staten Island and southern Brooklyn.
Here is the transcript of her interview on CBS News New York’s “The Point with Marcia Kramer” on Sunday, Aug. 24, 2025.
Texas, California and New York gerrymandering
MARCIA KRAMER: I’d like to start by talking about gerrymandering. Texas has decided to gerrymander five congressional seats, turn them to Republican. There’s going to be a reaction in California and here in New York. How do you feel about the fact that Kathy Hochul now wants to change the seats and to gerrymander some seats and turn them from Republican to Democrat?
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: Well first of all, let me make clear that regardless of whether it’s Republicans or Democrats doing it, gerrymandering is wrong. It’s very corrupt. It takes away the voice of the people. We need to have competitive maps so the voters are the ones who decide who represents them, and if they’re not happy, they have the ability to fire that individual.
What we have in New York City, sadly, is only one competitive seat, which happens to be mine. But yeah, in 2022 they tried to egregiously gerrymander my seat and we sued. That was the reason the entire state map was thrown out. The voters of New York have made it very clear they want independence when redistricting these maps. They do not want political gerrymandering. They made it clear in referendum. So when we sued and got the entire map thrown out, we got a judge to do it.
MARCIA KRAMER: But here’s the real question. So now that there’s a war of gerrymandering, Texas started it, they want it because control of the House in 2026 is a big deal, so they want to have five more Republican seats. California’s gonna do five more Democratic seats and that’s gonna start a whole war around the country. And when they look at New York, and they look at the Republican seats they can gerrymander, you’re target number one.
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: Well, I think that, first of all I think it was wrong that the Republicans in Texas opened up this flood gate. I don’t agree with it and it’s clear in the law that politically redrawing our maps has to be done every decade, once a decade, as it relates to the census. So it shouldn’t be happening, but here we are. And we’re gonna have to just continue to fight the state legislature on this. They can’t do it, number one, without a constitutional amendment, and that constitutional amendment will have to be approved by the voters. So the earliest this could happen would potentially be for 2028, but the voters will have a say unless they dismiss the will of the voters like they did back in 2022, when the voters said they didn’t want political gerrymandering and they decided to do it.
Either way, I think Republicans can win on merit. We just delivered significant tax relief. We restored the SALT relief. We were able to get a senior deduction where 88% of seniors are going to see their tax on social security eliminated. We are gonna see the economy continue to do well. We saw the GDP growing. We’re seeing trillions in private investment. Manufacturing is expanding here in the United States, and I think that we’re gonna continue to see these good things happening and Republicans don’t need to do what Democrats have done in New York, which is to gerrymander and try to tilt the scale.
New York Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis appears on the August 24, 2025, episode of “The Point with Marcia Kramer” on CBS News New York.
CBS News New York
MARCIA KRAMER: So if Republicans don’t need to do this, why is Texas doing it at the behest of President Trump?
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: Well that’s a very good question for the members in Texas, but I’ve been very clear in saying I don’t agree with it, whether it’s Republicans or Democrats doing it. In fact, I think we need to find a way to move forward with, perhaps we need to start using artificial intelligence or some type of computerized mapping system where it is completely competitive and it’s done in a fair and balanced manner to give you the most competitive seats, districts, throughout the country in each state. So that way, the voters really have optimal say and people have to go out there and fight for each and every vote. They need to explain their voting record and they need to win on merit.
And like I said, right now, New Yorkers don’t really have that choice in New York City. All these Democrat districts, they’re what’s called, like, plus 20, 30 Democrat districts. Mine is the closest to a competitive race and we won by double digits because we’re doing exactly what I just said we should be doing, which is going out and winning each and every vote, and having a voting record that reflects what the people who sent me to Washington to do wanted.
President Trump’s fight against mail-in voting
MARCIA KRAMER: So the next question I have is this. The president also wants to end mail-in ballots. He says that that’s a way to steal an election. Do you agree with that?
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: Well I think that certain states, like New York, have expanded mail-in ballots to have no excuse, that anyone can get it, and since some states will do it automatically where they send you a mail-in ballot whether you requested it or not, that’s wrong and there needs to be safeguards put in place. However, we do need to maintain mail-in ballots for legitimate reasons, if somebody’s on vacation and not gonna be in the district on that day, somebody’s disabled, senior citizens.
MARCIA KRAMER: Military service.
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: Military service. These are legitimate reasons. So I don’t think it is possible to really eliminate mail-in voting completely, but it does need to be limited and it does need to be safeguarded and it does need to be within a certain timeframe. What we saw in California, where ballots were coming in weeks after the election, one of my colleagues was winning by 5% on Election Night and then all of the sudden she lost by a few votes weeks later. That smells of corruption and those are the types of safeguards that need to be put in place to prevent that from happening.
A possible challenge from Justin Brannan?
MARCIA KRAMER: So how do you feel about the fact that Justin Brannan is thinking of running against you?
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: Well look, Justin Brannan is so out of sync with the people of Staten Island and southern Brooklyn. Here is somebody who supported and voted to defund the police. He was a cosponsor of the bill to let noncitizens vote in our local elections, something that I went to court and stopped successfully. He’s supporting Zohran Mamdani, the most radical left candidate. He’s chosen to align himself with that. The other day he was calling for no cooperation with ICE to deport people who are in our country illegally, committing crimes. And, by the way, as finance chairman, he has increased property taxes year after year, because the property tax levy under his watch as finance chairman has gone up. So, he is really so out of sync. It will not be accepted by the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn.
NYC mayor’s race and Zohran Mamdani
MARCIA KRAMER: I need to ask you about Mamdani being what looks like the presumptive candidate for mayor in New York.
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: I think that as people learn more about him they’re going to reject his policies. Hopefully that’ll happen, that they’ll learn more about him before the election because this is somebody who will make New York City less safe, less affordable. If you look at what he has supported already, he support defunding the police, he supports abolishing ICE, he doesn’t believe that there should be, there’s a place for prisons in our society. He has embraced the radical bail law that has released criminals onto our street. Now he’s saying he wants to decriminalize more crimes, including prostitution, which would just deteriorate quality of life further in our city. And he’s embraced the radical ideology of Karl Marx, literally, out of the communist playbook of Karl Marx, seizing the means of production, abolishing private property rights, government-run supermarkets. These are not things that I think commonsense New Yorkers supports.
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani leaves a press conference outside the Jacob K. Javits federal building Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in New York.
Yuki Iwamura / AP
MARCIA KRAMER: There are those who think that President Trump would love to have him as the mayor because he could make him the face of the Democratic Party nationally. Some think it would help in 2026 to gain, keep control of Congress.
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: Well that may be true. Politically, it might be a dream for the Republicans to have a face of the party that is a communist face, but that is not something that I want as a resident and taxpayer here in New York City.
I love this city and we have to make sure that we put it on the right path. He has been very clear, saying he wants to bring our city back to his favorite mayor’s vision, Bill de Blasio. That is not something I think New Yorkers want. Nor do I think the New Yorkers who fled communism and socialism, like my mother fled Cuba, want somebody who literally embraces those radical policies of Karl Marx. I think that the more New Yorkers learn about him, that they will reject him at the ballot box, and I hope that they learn about him soon and I count on people like you in the media to expose him.
MARCIA KRAMER: Well, you know, you were an assemblywoman in Albany who ran for mayor. He’s an assemblyman in Albany running for mayor. Do you see some similarities there?
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: Well it’s funny because they said I didn’t have enough experience to run the largest city in the country, the biggest economic engine of our country. But, yes, I was in the Assembly for twice as long and I certainly was a citizen for much longer than he is, and I think that, look, I would reject him, not just on that lack of experience. That is a big lack of experience, only being a citizen for seven years, only being in the State Assembly, the only office he’s held, for five years with no other real experience in the world. But what I think makes him most dangerous is the ideology that he has embraced, that he will, again, tie the hands of the NYPD, seek to defund them, get rid of jails in our society, embrace policies that would drive up costs, that would drive businesses and our tax base out of this city. These are things I think that commonsense Democrats, independents, Republicans would agree with me on.
We have three other, we’ve never had so many choices in the mayor’s race before, and if they don’t, you know, I think they’ve got to find one of those other candidates that they think are more palatable.
Click here to watch the full interview with Malliotakis.
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