NEW YORK ― Buoyed by voters’ appreciation of his clashes with former President Donald Trump and several high-profile endorsements, Rep. Jerry Nadler, an influential progressive member of Congress, won the bruising Democratic primary for New York’s 12th Congressional District.
Nadler, a storied figure on Manhattan’s Upper West Side who took on Trump as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, defeated Rep. Carolyn Maloney, his counterpart on the Upper East Side, and Suraj Patel, an attorney and former Obama administration official who had challenged Maloney twice before.
“Jerry Nadler is smart, serious and makes sense for that district,” said Alexis Grenell, a New York City progressive strategist.
“He is a rockstar,” she added. “That’s because of the highly engaged ― also very Jewish ― district that views participation in voting as another holy day. It’s a high holy day ― and Jerry shows up for the actual High Holy Days, too.”
Nadler is due to face Republican nominee Michael Zumbluskas in November. But in a heavily Democratic district that encompasses the heart of Manhattan ― from midtown to the upper boundary of Central Park ― Nadler is virtually guaranteed a 16th term in Congress.
The saga of Nadler’s acrimonious battle with Maloney, another three-decade incumbent and chair of the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, began just over three months ago. New York’s highest court ruled in late April that the congressional and state Senate maps drawn by New York’s Democratic-dominated state legislature violated a 2014 amendment to the state Constitution barring the redrawing of district boundaries for the benefit of a specific party.
The new maps, drawn by a court-appointed special master, squeezed Nadler’s and Maloney’s homes ― and constituencies ― on opposite sides of Central Park into the same district.
Right away, the showdown between the septuagenarian rivals grew personal and bitter, with Nadler admitting that he initially tried to convince Maloney to run in another district. Maloney, who sold voters on the importance of sending a woman back to Congress, also complained that it was superficial of Nadler and his allies to underscore his status as the last remaining Jewish representative of New York City in the House.
The sniping between Maloney and Nadler never abated. Nadler used a “red box” on his campaign website to signal to a super PAC to attack Maloney over her history of dabbling in vaccine skepticism. And over the weekend, Maloney implied to a television reporter that Nadler is senile.
All of the drama provided an opening for Patel, who had kicked off his third run against Maloney in February. He painted their fierce mudslinging as one of many indicators that the veteran lawmakers were past their sell-by dates.
“The incumbents have had 30 years. They failed us,” he said in campaign ad. “That’s why we need to elect new Democrats.”
Patel’s candidacy never looked more compelling than after the three candidates’ first televised debate earlier this month. That night, Patel was the only candidate to unequivocally state his support for President Joe Biden’s reelection. Maloney predicted that Biden would not run for reelection, and Nadler declined to engage the question, claiming it was important to take one election at a time, though they both walked it back shortly afterward.
Patel’s performance in the two debates won over Mollie Cantor, an Upper East Side resident who works in health care.
“I thought, ‘This guy is very young. And he’s not as experienced as these other guys. But I’m not sure where all of that experience has gotten us right now,’” Cantor told HuffPost on Tuesday. “It just seems like we need some new people in there to become experienced because the world is changing and the 70-year-olds ― they’ve done what they can do.”
But in addition to touting his anti-Trump credentials and roots on the Upper West Side, Nadler argued that losing two influential committee chairs, rather than just one, would deprive the district of valuable influence in Washington.
“Congress works on seniority, and the more seniority you have, the more clout you have,” he told HuffPost on Tuesday.
Nadler also maintained that he was more progressive than Maloney ― and, unlike Patel, had a record to prove it. He cited his votes against the Iraq War and the Patriot Act, as well as for the Iran nuclear agreement, as examples of distinctions between him and Maloney.
The New York Times’ editorial board noted those stances in its endorsement of Nadler on Aug. 13, the day early voting began.
“Mr. Nadler is traditionally liberal in his politics and policy priorities, and he is known for taking tough, principled votes,” the newspaper wrote.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) followed suit two days later ― and enough voters shared their judgment.
“He’s been my congressman for many years, and I approve of the job he’s done,” said Gilda Rothenberg, an apparel industry retiree living in Chelsea.
Rothenberg likes Maloney, and though she called the redistricting that forced her to choose between the two lawmakers “criminal,” she accepted that it was out of her hands.
“Unfortunately somebody had to win and somebody had to lose. That’s how it goes,” she said. “Somebody should tell that to Trump.”