Former Rep. Mondaire Jones launches comeback campaign

Former Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., announced Wednesday that he is running for his old House seat, launching a comeback after losing the Democratic primary in a different district last year.

Jones is running in the 17th District, which includes many of his old constituents, after losing a crowded primary in the neighboring 10th District last year post-redistricting. Jones opted to run in the 10th District after then-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of House Democrats' campaign arm, decided to run in the 17th District.

Maloney went on to lose to Republican Mike Lawler in November.

"People here know me. I stand up for Republicans trying to overthrow our democracy and take away the freedom to have an abortion even as I push members of my own party to fight harder for working people," Jones says in his announcement video.

"I have never been Washington's choice because I stand up to corruption," Jones later adds.

The video includes testimonials from voters who speak to his work on gun violence and infrastructure, as well as his work to fund the police, a notable point after Republicans successfully ran on crime in the 2022 midterms.

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Although he is a former member of Congress, Jones won't have the Democratic primary to himself. Liz Whitmer Gereghty, whose sister is Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, is also running. She picked up an endorsement last week from EMILY's List, which backs Democratic women who support abortion rights.

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The 17th District is a top Democratic target next year, since Lawler is one of 18 Republicans representing a district President Joe Biden carried in 2020. Biden beat former President Donald Trump by 10 percentage points in the district, per calculations from Daily Kos Elections. Lawler won his first term by just less than 1 percentage point.

Jones' announcement also comes at the start of the third fundraising quarter, when candidates in races up and down the ballot tend to launch their campaigns so they can take advantage of the full three-month fundraising period.