George Conway says he by no means anticipated to run for Congress. And when you’d requested, he says, “I would have laughed.”
But Conway, a former Republican as soon as married to Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign supervisor Kellyanne Conway, says his determination to run as a Democrat in New York isn’t any laughing matter. One of President Donald Trump’s fiercest critics, the 62-year-old lawyer informed NCS he has one purpose: To take on the president.
“I have the skills that are needed right now, at this moment, at this unique time,” Conway mentioned. “We have basically a criminal president, a convicted criminal, a man who is committing high crimes and misdemeanors in violation of his oath each and every day.”
It just isn’t an accident that Conway is formally saying his bid to run for Congress with this video on January 6, the fifth anniversary of the violent assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters.
But it’s unclear how a former Republican will fare in one of the bluest districts within the nation. And Conway is becoming a member of a crowded discipline.
The Democratic major is vast open, and the checklist of candidates to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler in New York’s twelfth congressional district consists of former President John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg, who has a big social media following, in addition to New York state Rep. Micah Lasher, who represents the West aspect of Manhattan, and New York state Rep. Alex Bores, whose district is on the East aspect of Manhattan.
Conway’s congressional marketing campaign is a great distance from 2016 when he voted for Trump, and his then-wife, Kellyanne Conway, steered the forty fifth president to victory as his marketing campaign supervisor.
“I was crying in joy for her,” mentioned Conway. “I didn’t really realize how bad, how horrible this guy would be.”
At the time, Conway was a associate at Wachtell Lipton, a outstanding legislation agency in New York, the place he labored on business litigation.
When Trump received, the Conways moved to Washington, the place Kellyanne turned a senior White House advisor, and George was the administration’s pick to be head of the Civil Division on the Justice Department.
But privately, he began having reservations about Trump, and withdrew himself from consideration for the DOJ submit in June 2017.
The subsequent yr, he went public attacking Trump and gained tens of millions of followers on social media. He additionally left the Republican Party and co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project and the Society for the Rule of Law.
“I was a Republican until 2018 when I realized it had become a personality cult, and it no longer stood for things that I had stood for for many years,” Conway mentioned.
Along the best way, he additionally spent greater than $1.5 million attacking Trump with television advertisements and billboards, in addition to donating to Democratic candidates.
In response, Trump hit again on social media, making enjoyable of Conway calling him “Mr. Kellyanne Conway” and “a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell.”
“He said much worse,” Conway added, noting, as an example, that Trump additionally known as him “Moonface” in 2020, which Conway believes was mocking his Filipino heritage.
Conway acknowledges that breaking with Trump got here at a private value. He misplaced buddies, and whereas he wouldn’t go into element, implies that it harm his marriage, which ended in divorce in 2023.
“I’m just not going to go there,” Conway mentioned. “I mean, it cost me a lot. Let’s just put it that way.”
Kellyanne Conway didn’t reply to a request for remark on George Conway’s congressional run.
The concept for Conway’s congressional race got here from his good friend, MSNOW commentator and journalist Molly Jong-Fast, who inspired him to run after a gaggle of Senate Democrats reduce a deal to finish the month-long authorities shutdown in November.
“We commiserated about that and talked about, well, there need to be more Democrats who are really out there understanding the battle against Trump and fighting at Trump. And she said to me, ‘Why don’t you run?’” Conway mentioned.
Jong-Fast prompt the open seat in New York, and Conway mentioned he shortly embraced the thought. He employed pollster Anna Greenberg, a marketing campaign workers, and tapped E. Jean Carroll lawyer Roberta Kaplan and Anthony Scaramucci, a fellow anti-Trump former Republican, as his marketing campaign finance co-chairs.
Kaplan, a lifelong Democrat who was launched to Carroll by Conway, mentioned it doesn’t matter to her that Conway is a former Republican.
“For me, absolutely not,” Kaplan informed NCS. “In today’s world, what arguably matters most is bravery. And George is one of the most courageous people I know.”
But Conway has loads of competitors and should deal with questions on whether or not he’s an actual New Yorker and Democrat.
“I welcome George to the race, to the city, and to the Democratic Party,” Bores, one of the opposite Democrats within the race, mentioned in a press release to NCS. “We are a big tent party and a welcoming city. Tell him to give me a call when he gets to town; there are so many great restaurants to share if he’s willing to venture a few blocks away from the TV studios he’s more familiar with.”
Gale Brewer, the previous Manhattan borough president who’s supporting Lasher within the major, mentioned that whereas the district actually embraces Conway’s anti-Trump message, that doesn’t differentiate him from the opposite Democrats working.
“You just can’t fly in and think these folks are going to vote for you. That’s my experience,” Brewer mentioned. “You really have to know the people on the ground, and not just show up Johnny-come-lately.”
Conway argues that he has longstanding ties to New York City, the place he lived and labored as a lawyer at Wachtell Lipton. In addition, he just lately registered to vote in New York, rented an condo, and even acquired his Corgi, Clyde, a metropolis canine license.
He additionally says he’s in a critical relationship with Ellen Braaten, a little one psychologist and professor at Harvard Medical School who lives within the district.
“This is where I made my career for 30 years,” Conway mentioned. “I want to make this place, this district, better. I want to make the country better, and we can’t get to really finish that job — we can nibble at it a little bit, maybe — until we do something about Donald Trump.”
Asked about different points, like affordability and constituent providers, Conway says that his first precedence goes after Trump.
“The best way to achieve those constituent services is to get rid of Donald Trump, to hold him accountable, to impeach and to remove him, which is really a moral obligation and a constitutional obligation of people who take an oath of office when they become members of Congress to investigate that and to pass laws,” Conway mentioned.
He has allies amongst never-Trump conservatives who’re bullish on his candidacy, even in a liberal district in the midst of Manhattan.
“If he wins, and assuming Democrats take the House, he could be a very significant figure in Congress. He won’t be your typical freshman,” mentioned Bill Kristol, one other longtime anti-Trump conservative.
David Lat, a authorized journalist who labored as an affiliate at Wachtell Lipton when Conway was a associate, mentioned that Conway has a “big personality” and was “far more colorful and interesting than your typical litigator in big law.”
“I think that some of us felt that George’s talents, personality and insights were not fully utilized in the world of big law,” mentioned Lat, who based the authorized information website Original Jurisdiction. “So George over the years found different ways to channel this.”
Conway says that he’s not making an attempt to develop into a profession politician. He sees himself as a “special teams player” who solely serves for a number of years.
“I don’t intend to be doing this when I am 66 or 67 or 68,” Conway mentioned. “I want to do this for one reason, and that is to help get this, our governmental system, back on track, with something back to normal, at least back toward normal.”
Until just lately, Conway co-hosted a podcast on the Bulwark, a information website that describes itself as a “home for the politically homeless.” On an episode final month saying his departure from the present, he teased his congressional run and his probabilities of profitable.
It is, he mentioned, “either the stupidest thing I’ve ever done or the best thing, we’ll see.”