A former congressman and the sister of Michigan’s governor will face off in a Democratic primary in New York’s 17th district, where freshman Republican Mike Lawler is seeking re-election to a second term next year.
Former Rep. Mondaire Jones announced today that he would seek a political comeback for a seat that borders New Jersey’s 5th district. Lawler’s Rockland County home is four minutes away from Bergen County.
Liz Whitmer Gereghty, the sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and a Westchester school board member, announced her candidacy in May.
Jones, a 36-year-old Harvard Law School graduate, was elected to Congress in 2020 after House Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey retired.
Congressional redistricting in 2022 put him in the same district as Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman. Jones ran in New York’s 10th to avoid a primary with another incumbent, which included none of the terrain he had previously represented in Congress; he finished third in the Democratic primary with 18% of the vote.
“I’ve never been Washington’s choice. It’s because I stand up to corruption,” Jones said. “I battle with Republicans trying to overthrow our democracy and ban abortion, even as I push my party to fight harder for working people.”
Lawler, a one-term assemblyman, had strong ties to New Jersey. Along with Chris Russell, he ran Checkmate Strategies, a Republican political consulting firm. He defeated Maloney by 1,820 votes, 50.3% to 49.7%.
In a News 12 interview today, Jones said he regretted not taking on Maloney in primary last year.
“I never imagined that I would wake up one day and have to decide against primarying a member of the Democratic party at a time when we were seeing an assault on our democracy,” said Jones.
Editor’s note: New York’s 17th district is New Jersey-adjacent and will be part of the New Jersey Globe’s 2024 coverage area.
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