Trump critic George Conway attends an event with the group Principles First outside the RNC grounds during the third day of the convention at Pabst Best Places on July 17, 2024.
Sarah Status | Washington Post | Getty Images
George Conway, who was married to a former presidential aide before becoming a prominent anti-Trump voice, announced Tuesday that he is running for a House seat in New York City, 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 City for years but these days lives in Bethesda, Maryland, said he was inspired to run for Congress after a conversation with a friend about his dissatisfaction with some Democrats’ decision to vote to end last year’s government shutdown.
Mr. Conway didn’t want to challenge his favorite Maryland congressman, Rep. Jamie Raskin, so a friend suggested he instead consider the Manhattan seat that would soon be vacated by Rep. Jerry Nadler’s retirement.
Conway said he looked it up on Wikipedia and realized it was his former base.
“I was like, ‘There’s an empty seat.’ This is not crazy. You should think about it,” he said in an interview.
He said he returned to Manhattan a few weeks ago.
Mr. Conway joins a number of Democrats seeking to take Mr. Nadler’s seat. Candidates include Nadler protégé and state Rep. Micah Lasher, school shooting survivor and advocate Cameron Kasky, and John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg.
In his campaign launch video, Mr. Conway, 62, positioned himself as a veteran Trump opponent whose extensive experience as a lawyer allows him to continue fighting the president from Congress for years.
“These are not normal times, and I’m not a normal lawmaker,” he said.
Conway, a former Republican who helped found the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said he doesn’t want to be a politician but feels “now we need people who can fight Trump the way they need to be fought.”
He supported Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, was married to Kellyanne Conway, a pollster and strategist who became a senior adviser to the first president, and one of Trump’s most ardent defenders.
As President Trump’s first term progressed, George Conway began criticizing Trump with an aggressiveness that matched his then-wife’s fervent support for the president, drawing unusual attention to the political differences in their relationship.
At one point, Trump shot back at George Conway, calling him “a heartless loser and husband from hell!”
The Conways announced their divorce in 2023, saying in a statement that their marriage “filled many happy years.”
The district Mr. Conway hopes to represent, consisting of midtown Manhattan and the hotly anticipated Upper East and Upper West regions, is considered solidly Democratic.
Mr. Nadler, 78, announced last year that he would not run for re-election, as he has long been a member of the New York Congressional Caucus and is calling for generational change in Congress. His planned resignation has led to a slew of Democratic candidates emerging to take his seat.
