Brutal Dem primary could pit ex-lawmaker against gov’s sister

Mondaire Jones is gearing up for a potential run for his old House seat, which could tee up a ugly primary with the sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in must-win territory for Democrats.

While the ex-congressman is publicly saying he’s undecided, four people familiar with his plans say he’s prepping a run for his former New York seat. That’ll likely pit him against Liz Whitmer Gereghty, who has filed federal campaign paperwork and is slated to officially launch her bid soon.

Democrats are bracing for the showdown — in one of several New York districts they need to claw back their House majority — to get nasty.

Jones’ backers are already peeved at what they see as an unnecessarily messy primary that will detract from efforts to flip the seat. Adding to the angst: Jones and his allies already felt he’d been screwed out of the seat in 2022, after former House Democratic campaign chair Sean Patrick Maloney ran in Jones’ district following a redistricting saga. And then Maloney lost in the general, after an aggressive national GOP campaign, to Rep. Mike Lawler.

“I want him to run. He needs to run,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) of Jones. “What Sean Patrick Maloney did was bullshit. That should have been Mondaire’s seat.”

“I didn’t even know her sister lived in the district,” he added, referring to Gereghty. “And I don’t know many people who know her.”

Gereghty supporters note she’s lived in the area for two decades and serves on a local school board. And even some of Jones’ former New York colleagues are tepid about his return after his unsuccessful run for a different seat — miles away from his old one — after last year’s redistricting mess.

Jones has reached out to those members in recent days, according to four people familiar with the conversations, and it’s not clear how many of his former colleagues would support his comeback bid.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a fellow progressive, said she didn’t want to get involved before anyone officially entered the primary.

“Mondaire being in a neighboring district, we’re always kind of talking and chatting,” she said. “I think those are decisions that’s very personal and I think it’s one that I defer to him.”

And Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus’ political arm, said he wasn’t going to weigh in yet, either: “I’ll give everyone the opportunity to make their case to see who would be the best candidate.”

That’s the standard line from most members, for now, but the potential matchup threatens to pit members of the New York delegation against their Michigan counterparts and senior Black Caucus members against allies of the popular Democratic governor.

The race will also test competing views on how the party should run in competitive districts: by juicing up the progressive base or appealing to the center. Jones was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus while Gereghty seems more likely to carve out a more moderate lane. She met Thursday with the executive director of the New Democrat Coalition Action Fund, the political arm of the centrist group, according to a person familiar with the situation.

New York’s 17th District, which includes parts of Westchester County and all of Rockland and Putnam counties, is a crucial battleground for Democrats who saw Maloney, their own 2022 campaign chief, lose it in the midterms. After a court tossed out the map New York Democrats drew following the 2020 census, Maloney declared he would run in the new 17th district, which included most of Jones’ current turf, leaving the first-term lawmaker with no clear political home.

The bitter feelings haven’t subsided in Jones’ camp, and his allies are eager to clear his path for 2024.

“We saw what happened the last time political elites in Washington tried to determine the Democratic nominee in the district he represented 75 percent of,” Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) said. She praised Jones as a “highly productive” member who could retake the seat.

Maloney’s shocking upset last year forced the district, which President Joe Biden won by 10 points, to the top of Democrats’ 2024 target list. The party has signaled it’s willing to spend heavily to recapture Biden-won districts in New York after suffering unexpected losses in 2022.

Other candidates could still emerge in the race, but so far, Gereghty is the only Democrat who has filed.

Both Jones and Gereghty bring their own advantages. Jones could draw from wells of support among other national Democrats and the powerful Congressional Black Caucus. As a first-term lawmaker, he had carved out a niche by vocally calling for the expansion of the Supreme Court. He’s stayed active in local politics, too.

“He’s a dear friend, and I’d like to see him come back, and so I would love to be able to support him,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who served with Jones on the House Judiciary Committee.

Gereghty, for her part, has been reaching out to members in the Michigan delegation, and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) has been helping with the early stages of her campaign. Gereghty’s campaign manager will be Carissa Best, who led Rep. Hillary Scholten’s (D-Mich.) successful campaign to flip a Grand Rapids-based seat in 2022.

“We love her,” Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) said of Gereghty, though she is not yet endorsing and is also friendly with Jones.

“New York has lost some female leadership over the years,” the Michigan Democrat added. “She’s been steeped in that community for decades and is on the school board and was a small business owner and a mom.”

Jones, first elected in 2020, would not likely not launch a run until the third quarter of the year and wouldn’t make a final decision before May, according to a person familiar with his thinking. But he is starting to assemble his political operation and a campaign staff-in-waiting. Some Democrats on the ground in his district are urging him to jump in, too.

“Mondaire has a great relationship with most of the voters in NY-17 and it’s unfortunate others would risk forcing a divisive primary instead of uniting around our strongest candidate to beat Mike Lawler,” Rockland County Democratic Party Chair Schenley Vital said in a statement.

Jones, he added, was forced out of office by some in “the national party establishment.”