Former Rep. Mondaire Jones launches comeback bid for House seat in New York

Former Rep. Mondaire Jones announced Wednesday he will run for Congress in New York’s 17th Congressional District, setting up a highly anticipated comeback bid and a possibly brutal Democratic primary in a key swing seat.

“Most people in Washington didn’t grow up like me,” Jones said in acampaign video that touched on abortion rights and his record increasing police funding. “They have no idea what it’s like to struggle. We got to get Washington back on the side of working people. I know we can do better. For me, this is personal.”

Jones will face aDemocratic primary against Liz Whitmer Gereghty, an education advocate and the sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Gereghty, who serves on a school board in the district, has beencourting support from members of the Michigan congressional delegation and is expected to carve out a more moderate lane in the race. Democrats are eager to flip the seat currently held by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.

Jones became one of the first two openly gay Black men elected to Congress when he first won his seat in 2020. As a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Jones supported “Medicare for All,” the “Green New Deal” and early efforts to cut funding for police, while ultimately voting for increased police funding and the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure deal. Jones alsovoted to approve funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system in 2022, a nod to his district’s sizable Hasidic Jewish population.

After redistricting placed him in the same district as then-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, then the chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm, Jones opted not to run in the 17th District, even though it contained most of his old district in the lower Hudson Valley. He instead ran in the Manhattan-based 10th District, losing to Dan Goldman inthe primary. Maloney then went on tolose to Lawler by less than a percentage point, one of many upsets Democrats experienced in New York House races. President Joe Biden carried the 17th District by 10 points in 2020.

Jones said in a Wednesdayinterview on News 12 Westchester that he regretted his decision to forgo a primary challenge against Maloney in 2020.

“I never imagined that I would wake up one day and would have to decide against primarying a member of the Democratic Party at a time when we were seeing an assault on our democracy,” Jones said. “To that extent, yeah, I do regret not being the Democratic nominee last cycle.”

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Savannah Viar in a statement Wednesday slammed Jones’ position on cashless bail and early stance on cutting police funding as being “more in line with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez than the voters in the Hudson Valley he abandoned.” Viar also highlighted Jones’ decision tostop taking constituent services cases in November, two months before leaving office.

The Jones campaign dismissed Republicans’ attacks.

“In order to avoid open cases slipping through the cracks during the transition at the end of last year, Mondaire’s office followed the practice of his predecessor Nita Lowey by focusing on resolving hundreds of open cases in his final two months and referring new, non-emergency cases to the offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand while continuing to take on new emergency cases,” a Jones campaign spokesperson told POLITICO on Wednesday.

“The people of NY-17 know Mondaire will always fight for them, and that is why he is launching his race today with the support of 109 in-district elected officials and party leaders,” the spokesperson said.

Lucy Hodgman contributed to this report.