Mondaire Jones to run for Congress again — but not in NYC this time

Former Rep. Mondaire Jones is heading back north.

Jones, a Democrat, announced on Wednesday that he will make another run for the U.S. House of Representatives next year. But it won’t be in New York’s 10th District, which spans Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn and which Jones unsuccessfully sought to represent in 2022's crowded primary.

Instead, he says he is returning to his roots. Jones will run for New York’s 17th District in the Hudson Valley, which he previously represented in Congress in 2021 and 2022.

The district includes Rockland County, where Jones grew up in the village of Spring Valley; Putnam County and northern Westchester County. GOP Rep. Michael Lawler currently represents the district.

Jones launched his campaign with a prerecorded video highlighting his Rockland roots, as well as an interview with News 12 Westchester.

“Growing up, I didn't see people like me in Congress,” Jones, who was one of the first Black men in Congress who identifies as LGBTQ+, said in the video. “Then, I was elected to represent the same people's whose homes I watched my grandmother clean."

Jones’ campaign is the latest in his series of moves between districts spurred by redistricting last year, when New York’s 27 congressional districts were redrawn by a court-appointed expert to account for population shifts.

As a result, Jones was put in the same district as fellow Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who headed the congressional Democrats’ campaign last year and quickly declared his intention to run for the seat. That left Jones with the options of primarying Maloney or looking for a new district.

Ultimately, Jones decided to run in the newly drawn 10th District, and lost the primary to now-Rep. Dan Goldman.

Jones’ new bid for the 17th District sets up a potential primary with Liz Gereghty — sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and a former school board member — for the right to face Lawler.

Gereghty, who until recently served on the Katonah-Lewisboro School Board in Westchester, launched her campaign in May with a video of her own.

“Something’s gotten way off track, and the only one left to fix it is us,” Geregthy said in her video.

In a statement, Lawler campaign spokesperson Chris Russell accused Jones of trying to “run away from his previous record in Congress — just like he ran away from his constituents in 2022.”

“Congressman Lawler, on the other hand, will earn re-election by continuing to deliver on his promise to be the bipartisan problem solver who Hudson Valley residents want representing them in Washington,” Russell said.