Rep. Jerry Nadler handily defeated Rep. Carolyn Maloney in New York’s marquee Democrat primary Tuesday, bringing to a close a heated race in which two New York powerhouses were pitted against one another in a battle to keep their congressional seats.
Nadler was beating Maloney, his congressional colleague of three decades, 56 percent to 27 percent as of the time of this writing. NBC called the race shortly after polls closed at 9:00 p.m. local time.
Nadler and Maloney, two chairs of major House committees, Judiciary and Oversight, were forced to face each other in New York’s 12th District race in Manhattan after the state’s congressional lines were redrawn to combine parts of both their districts.
Maloney during her campaign sought to make the case that voters should not “send a man to do a woman’s job” in an appeal to liberal voters who perceive that women’s rights are at stake in the wake of the pro-life movement’s Roe victory.
Maloney, who was endorsed by the National Organization for Women and feminist Gloria Steinem, touted her push to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and lamented that the number of women in Congress is disproportionate to the overall U.S. population.
Maloney said at one point that Nadler had told her to “leave and stand aside” once their redistricting dilemma became apparent and that she felt that sentiment was sexist, according to the New York Post.
When Nadler picked up a prized endorsement from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, another New York Democrat bigwig, Maloney dismissed Nadler and Schumer as being members of the “old boys’ network,” per NY1.
Nadler, for his part, focused his campaign on solidifying his left-wing bona fides, contrasting his “principled, progressive” voting record with Maloney’s, as reported by NY1, and holding a post-Roe abortion-related hearing through chairing his committee around the same time Maloney held the same through her committee.
Both Maloney and Nadler struggled during their campaigns with their affiliation with President Joe Biden, who remains deeply unpopular in polls.
Maloney in particular flip flopped egregiously on questions about Biden running for a second term. Most recently, she told the New York Times “off the record” that Biden was not running in 2024, and when the Times did not agree to go off the record, she clarified, “He should not run again.”
Nadler, when posed a similar question, said it was “too early to say” if Biden should run again.
In addition to being backed by Schumer in his race, Nadler picked up hefty endorsements from the New York Times and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Additionally, what came as possibly a gift to Nadler was an endorsement from another New York titan, former President Donald Trump, who announced last week in a statement laced with sarcasm his support for Maloney.
