(Headline USA) Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that he will run for Congress in a redrawn district that includes his Brooklyn home.
De Blasio, whose second mayoral term ended last year, announced on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that he will seek the Democratic nomination for the 10th Congressional District, which will include part of Manhattan and a swath of western Brooklyn.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler represents New York’s 10th District now but will no longer live in the district under maps that have been redrawn under the supervision of a New York judge.
The ordeal follows a high-stakes gambit by New York Democrats to secure congressional advantages for themselves through egregious gerrymandering, despite the deep-blue state having lost a seat in the most recent US Census.
That effort was defeated in court, with the state’s top appeals court—comprising all Democrat-appointed judges—having the final say that the map violated New York’s constitution.
The ruling party’s refusal to submit more reasonable maps put it under the purview of conservative Judge Patrick McAllister, who had given Democrats a deadline to submit new ones before the state’s primary.
The legal failure threw Democrats into disarray by forcing several incumbents into the same district. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez called for Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to resign after Maloney announced that he planned to run in the same district as freshman “Squad” member Mondaire Jones.
Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has said he believed the new maps are unconstitutional—but if the proposed districts do become final on Friday, he intends to run in the 12th District, currently represented by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who heads the House Oversight Committee.
The primary has been pushed back from June to August 23.
De Blasio, 61, toyed with running for governor this year but decided not to challenge incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul. He also had a short-lived run for president in 2019.
But the widely unpopular mayor struggled to get traction even within his own party and exited the race with near-zero support in polls.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
