NEW YORK (AP) — George Conway, who was as soon as married to a former adviser to the president earlier than turning into a outstanding anti-Trump voice, introduced on Tuesday that he’s operating for a U.S. Home seat in New York Metropolis, testing whether or not he can flip his sturdy social media following into votes in a crowded Democratic major.
Conway — who labored for years in New York Metropolis as an legal professional however has extra not too long ago been dwelling in Bethesda, Md. — mentioned he was spurred to run for Congress after a dialog with a pal about her frustration with some Democrats’ determination to vote to finish final yr’s authorities shutdown.
Conway didn’t need to problem his congressmember in Maryland, Rep. Jamie Raskin, who he mentioned he loves, so the pal prompt he as an alternative take a look at a seat in Manhattan that was quickly to be vacant on the retirement of Rep. Jerry Nadler.
Conway mentioned he regarded it up on Wikipedia, and realized it was his outdated stomping grounds. “It was like, Huh, it’s an open seat. This isn’t loopy. I ought to take into consideration this,” he mentioned in an interview.
He relocated again to Manhattan a number of weeks in the past, he mentioned.
Conway joins a flood of Democrats seeking to take over Nadler’s seat. Among the many candidates are Nadler protégé and state lawmaker Micah Lasher; faculty capturing survivor and advocate Cameron Kasky; and Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy.
In a marketing campaign launch video, Conway, 62, positioned himself as a seasoned Trump foe whose intensive expertise as an legal professional would enable him to proceed his yearslong battle towards the president from Congress.
“That is no unusual time, and I can’t be an unusual member of Congress,” he mentioned.
Conway, a former Republican who helped discovered the anti-Trump Lincoln Venture, mentioned he doesn’t need to be a profession politician however felt that “it is a second the place we’d like individuals who can battle Trump the best way he must be battled.”
He supported Trump’s 2016 presidential run and had been married to Kellyanne Conway, a pollster and strategist who grew to become senior presidential adviser within the first Trump White Home, in addition to one among Trump’s fiercest defenders.
As Trump’s first time period went on, George Conway started to criticize Trump with an aggressiveness that rivaled his then-wife’s ardent assist of the president, drawing extraordinary consideration to their relationship’s diverging political positions.
At one level, Trump fired again, calling George Conway “a stone chilly LOSER & husband from hell!”
The Conways introduced their divorce in 2023, writing in an announcement that their marriage had included “many blissful years.”
The district Conway is hoping to signify is taken into account solidly Democratic, consisting of Midtown Manhattan and the tony Higher East and Higher West sides.
Nadler, 78, longtime fixture of New York’s congressional delegation calling for generational change in Congress, mentioned final yr that he wouldn’t run for reelection. His deliberate exit has led to a flood of Democratic candidates rising to take over his seat.
