NEW YORK (AP) — George Conway, who was once married to a former presidential adviser before becoming a prominent anti-Trump voice, announced Tuesday that he is running for a U.S. House seat in New York, testing whether he can turn his strong social media following into votes in a crowded Democratic primary.
Conway, who worked as a lawyer in New York for years but most recently lives in Bethesda, Maryland, said he was prompted to run for Congress after talking to a friend about her frustrations with some Democrats. decision to vote to end last year’s government shutdown.
Conway didn’t want to challenge his Maryland congressman, Rep. Jamie Raskin, whom he said he loved, so a friend suggested he instead look at the Manhattan seat soon to be vacant after Rep. Jerry Nadler’s retirement.
Conway said he looked it up on Wikipedia and realized it was his old base.
“It was like, what, it’s an open spot. It’s not crazy. I should think about it,” he said in an interview.
He moved back to Manhattan a few weeks ago, he said.
Conway joins a flood of Democrats looking to take over Nadler’s seat. Among the candidates are Nadler protégé and state legislator Micah Lasher, a school shooting survivor and defense attorney Cameron Kasky and Jack Schlossberggrandson of John F. Kennedy.
In a campaign launch video, Conway, 62, cast himself as a veteran Trump foe whose extensive experience as a lawyer would allow him to continue his years-long battle against the president from Congress.
“These are not ordinary times. And I’m not going to be an ordinary member of Congress,” he said.
Conway, a former Republican who helped found the anti-Trump Project Lincolnhe said he did not want to be a career politician, but felt “this is the moment we need people who can fight Trump the way he needs to be fought”.
He supported Trump’s 2016 presidential bid and was married to Kellyanne Conway, a pollster and strategist who became a senior presidential adviser in Trump’s first White House and was also one of Trump’s staunchest defenders.
As Trump’s first term continued, George Conway began criticizing Trump with a ferocity that matched his then-wife’s fervent support for the president, drawing extraordinary attention to the differing political positions of their relationship.
At one point, Trump fired back, calling George Conway a “cold-blooded LOSER and the husband from hell!”
The Conways announced their divorce in 2023, writing in a statement that their marriage had included “many happy years.”
The district that Conway hopes to represent is considered solidly Democratic, consisting of Midtown Manhattan and tones of the Upper East and Upper West.
Nadler, 78, said last year he would not seek re-election, with New York’s longtime congressional delegation calling for a generational change in Congress. His planned departure led to a flood of Democratic candidates emerging to take his seat.
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