Dem
51
GOP
49
Mondaire Jones represented NY-17 (parts of Westchester County and all of Rockland County, north of New York City) from Jan. 2021 to Jan. 2023. After redistricting, he was thrown into the same district as then-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D). He was afraid he couldn't beat Maloney in the Democratic primary, so he jumped into NY-10 instead. There he had to run against Dan Goldman, the Democrats' top lawyer during the first impeachment of Donald Trump. Goldman has a B.A. from Yale and a J.D. from Stanford and his great grandfather was the president of Levi Strauss & Co. Bad move for Jones. Goldman beat him in the primary and was easily elected to Congress, where he will probably stay for the next 40 years in the upscale D+35 district, unless he runs for the Senate when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) retires.
Meanwhile, Jones wants to be back in Congress, so he is moving from NY-10 back to NY-17 and will run for the seat currently occupied by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY). More bad luck for Jones. He's got a another tough opponent. He just can't seem to find a nice district with no other Democrats. Maybe he should move to Wyoming. Not much primary competition there.
Jones' problem in NY-17 is that he will face Liz Whitmer Gereghty, the sister of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), who is frequently mentioned as a 2028 presidential candidate. Needless to say, the two-term Michigan governor is extremely well plugged into the Democratic Party and its donors, and will be able to give her sibling an assist. Unlike Jones, who seems to move around a lot, Gereghty has lived in the district for over 20 years and is on a local school board. Jones is not exactly a carpetbagger, but more of an opportunist. Voters don't like that.
The new NY-17 is a swing district (D+3), which is why a Republican was able to win it. Gereghty, who is a moderate and who owns a small shop in Katonah selling funky accessories and gifts to teenagers and young adults, is probably a better fit for the district as presently constituted than the progressive Jones. It's going to be Bernie vs. Hillary, Part 673. The district is high on the list of districts the Democrats want to flip, so a lot of money is going to pour in. Couple that with its proximity to the media world of New York City (it's a 44-minute ride and $11.25 on the Metro North Railroad from Grand Central Terminal to the district) and both the primary and the general election are going to be extremely high profile races. (V)