Mondaire Jones launched a comeback bid for the New York House of Representatives on July 4, through a masterfully crafted campaign video.
Jones’ tagline for his campaign is centered around how personal this race is for him and, on his website, his announcement video featured this theme prominently. Jones emphasized his working-class background, positioning himself as someone who is interested first and foremost in the well-being of New York’s workers.
Jones came across as a relatable figure, as he discussed how important community and family and, in particular, his mother, are to him. Jones, who is the first openly gay Black congressional representative, formerly held the position in 2020.
Jones is running against the sister of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, Liz Whitmer Gereghty, for the Democratic nomination in New York’s 17th Congressional District. Gereghty is expected to position herself as a moderate Democrat in her effort to flip the House seat from Republican incumbent Mike Lawler.
According to his website, Jones was responsible for negotiating the passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Act as well as getting the American Rescue Plan Act passed. Both of these legislative actions helped to establish Jones as a rising star in the Democratic party and also led to him being named the most legislatively active freshman in Congress during his term.
Though Jones was a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus during his tenure, he still voted to increase police funding and to give Israel more money for their Iron Dome project. Both of these were moves that did not sit well with leftists and seemed inconsistent with Jones’ general platform, as he supported the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Jones seems aware of this, as he took a little time to discuss his past choice to vote for increased police funding in his announcement video.
Jones elected not to run for the position last cycle after gerrymandered redistricting shuffled the area he would be representing. Jones seemed to regret that choice as he told News 12 Westchester in an interview: “I never imagined that I would wake up one day and would have to decide against primarying a member of the Democratic party at a time when we were seeing an assault on our democracy,” Jones explained. “To that extent, yeah, I do regret not being the Democratic nominee last cycle.”
I’ve never been Washington's choice. It's because I stand up to corruption. I battle with Republicans trying to overthrow our democracy & ban abortion, even as I push my party to fight harder for working people.
I'm running to finish the work I began. Chip in >>… pic.twitter.com/iDO1yYYUH6
— Mondaire Jones (@MondaireJones) July 5, 2023
Jones talked to Intelligencer, New York Magazine‘s political arm, in August of 2022, revealing his motivations for switching from the 17th district to the 10th district. Jones remarked, “My residence was drawn into the same district where Jamal Bowman had announced his candidacy. My options were to run against a fellow Black progressive and one of the few people who fully appreciates the threats that we face as a nation in this moment or to run against the chair of the DCCC, whose primary job responsibility it is to help us keep our majority and defeat fascism in America.”
During that interview, Jones stressed many of the points that he hit in his campaign video, including the concept that for him, as an openly gay Black man, politics is personal. He also briefly addressed the distrust that some have had with the Democratic Party as a whole and communicated that the party needs more members who are willing to stand up and fight the Republican Party. Jones noted during the interview that the Republican party is full of fascists and its issues extended well beyond then-President Donald J. Trump. Jones also remarked that any serious candidate had better be prepared to deal with that reality.
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