After nearly a decade of representing adjacent Brooklyn communities in Congress, Hakeem Jeffries and Yvette Clarke almost had an unexpected and new primary election challenger — each other.

For the first time in their time in Congress, the pair would have faced off in the Aug. 23 primary to both represent Bed-Stuy, as the neighborhood was briefly split between their two districts. The newly contested race had come about as a result of redistricting. 

Redistricting is a process that allows state governments  to redraw their congressional and state legislature districts. It occurs every 10 years following the release of census data, which shows how much each state’s population has changed over the decade.