George Conway, Republican for most of his life, has changed parties and neighborhoods to join a crowded Democratic primary in Manhattan, where Rep. Jerry Nadler has decided to retire from Congress.
As a vocal Trump critic, former lawyer, and former spouse of Kellyanne Conway, former senior aide to Trump in his first term, 61-year-old Conway says, “Everything is at stake — democracy is at stake, the rule of law is at stake, constitutional government is at stake. And it’s no longer good enough for me to sit and lob things in from the spectator seats.”
Formerly a conservative lawyer and member of the Federalist Society, Conway took a hard line against Trump in 2018, as a founding member of the Lincoln Project, and eventually dropped large wads of money into the Kamala Harris campaign.
The 12th district in Manhattan is among the most affluent, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 7 to 1, and is where Conway recently moved to live in a Chelsea apartment with his corgi Clyde. While recently living in Washington, Conway says he lived most of his life in the 12th district, where all four of his children were born. He even lived at Trump World Tower for years. He doesn’t see himself as a carpetbagger.
Conway stressed that the threat Trump poses requires Democrats to elect lawmakers to Congress who can fight back effectively in favor of the rule of law against what he called “end-stage Trumpism” — and work to prevent a resurgence of it in the future.
Eliminating Trumpism requires two things, according to Conway.
Step one, he says, is accountability in the form of impeachment not just for Trump but for his cabinet and cronies.
Step two would require legislation within the constitution that would prevent Trumpism from happening again — which would require good lawyering on the Judiciary and Oversight Committees.
He sees himself as a “special teams player,” possibly a pinch-hitter, who would leave Congress when the job is finished.
The Democratic primary is already crowded with nine other candidates that include JFK’s grandson Jack Schlossberg, Caroline Kennedy’s son.