Radicals have made a name for themselves in presenting key challenges against Democratic incumbents. And Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) is one of the few late New York incumbents who have survived to tell the story.
For many years, Maloney was seen as a progressive ally — ever since her days on the New York City Council in the 1980s, where she advocated for gender equality and was the original proponent of legislation on domestic work. Elected to Congress in 1993, she spent decades crafting the policy achievements she could list shortly thereafter.
And aside from a first challenge in 2010, where she beat her opponent with 81% of the vote, her incumbent is secure.
But in the past few years, something has changed.
In 2018, 2020 and now 2022, the left sought to appreciate Maloney, 76, as a member of the former Democratic Party bodyguard. They say she’s not communicating with her district, isn’t making enough progress, and alleges that she hasn’t brought about the kind of change voters want.
But in every primary election to date, voters in New York’s 12th Congressional District have signaled that they believe otherwise. Her closest to electoral disaster was in 2020 when Maloney received just 43 percent of the primary vote while fighting three rebels.
“I work hard. I deliver, and some people appreciate it. Some people don’t,” Maloney said in an interview with The Daily Beast.
With just four months to go before the New York Democratic primary, however, the field against her only continues to grow, with political audiences wondering if this year could be different.
Last week, former Obama administration staffer Suraj Patel announced the main challenge to Maloney for the third time after losing only 3,496 votes in the Democratic primary in the region. Patel first faced Maloney in 2018.
Patel, one The 38-year-old lawyer, said he didn’t make a firm decision about entering the race until “last week or so”. He is waiting for the redistricting results to come through, hinting in a February 15 interview that “it’s important for you to know who you’re representing when you run for office.”
Patel told The Daily Beast: “Now, more than I have ever run for office before, I think people realize that the Democrats need a new generation of leaders out of the pandemic.
Patel and Maloney’s previous matches were terrible. In 2020, Patel called congresswoman a “hate uses racist tactics to attack a brown man running against her because it upsets her.” That same year, Maloney harshly criticized Patel’s use of fake dating app profiles to lure voters into political conversations.
An internal poll commissioned by Patel’s team in January showed Maloney versus Patel head-to-head ratio at 41 percent and 37 percent of the vote, respectively, with 22 percent of voters saying they weren’t sure they would vote. for whom.
But in 2022, Patel is not alone. Last year, 28-year-old Rana Abdelhamid, who works in marketing at Google, also presented a key challenge against Maloney, focusing on issues like affordable housing.
Abdelhamid is supported by the Justice Democrats: a progressive group that has gained prominence after supporting the current Party. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vs Representative Joe Crowley (D-NY) in 2018.
“I am someone who grew up under the leadership of Congressman Maloney. I have seen firsthand the ways in which she neglects communities like mine,” Abdelhamid told The Daily Beast. Abdelhamid added that she believes Maloney has been too close to Wall Street and corporations throughout her career.
“It’s demonstrated by where she gets her funding, where her resources are, and who she focuses on in her campaign and work,” added Abdelhamid. Maloney accepts corporate sponsorship — a position that is becoming increasingly unpopular among new-age progressives.
So far, there have been at least three other major bids against Maloney, including community activists Maya Contreras and Jesse Cerrotti, in addition to Maud Maron. Maron is a former public defender and Democrat centrist who is running an open-school, proxy-masking campaign.
Chris Coffey, New York-based Democratic strategist and CEO of Tusk Strategies, told The Daily Beast that “definitely the more people run, the more you think Carolyn has the edge,” with the potential for more voters. The more progressive tri was divided among those who challenged Maloney while allowing congresswomen to hold ground here. Coffey added that could change if older politicians join the race as well.
Coffey also noted that he does not believe NY-12 is a county that will attract particular progress on the left side, stating, “The current county is not [Democratic Socialist of America] district.” Abdelhamid is a member of the DSA.
George Arzt, another veteran New York Democratic strategist, also noted that the post-redivision NY-12 mapping was a “huge victory” for Maloney. The new NY-12 routes extend to parts of Manhattan now represented by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and cut portions of Brooklyn and Queens — areas where Patel has excelled in previous elections . Abdelhamid is also based in Queens.
“It was a very good district for her,” he said. Arzt has worked with Maloney in previous elections but has not now.
As for Maloney herself, she insists she doesn’t “take anything for granted” and says she’s “meeting new voters and new areas of the district and working hard.” And in a campaign cycle in which 30 House Democrats have not sought re-election, the congresswoman says that thought hasn’t crossed her mind yet.
“I have so much work to do,” she said.
The party’s left-wing criticized some of the votes cast on Maloney’s record – the kind of vote typically accumulated by members who have been in office for years. In previous cycles, she has been criticized for voting on former President Bill Clinton’s 1984 crime bill and voting for the Iraq War.
Those votes, however, do not paint a full picture of Maloney’s overwhelmingly progressive leanings. She is a member of Congress’s Radical Caucus Council, a proponent of Medicare for All and a supporter of the Green New Deal.
“I am a progressive person – a pragmatic progressive person with experience. They are pragmatic and inexperienced progressives,” Maloney told The Daily Beast of her opponents.
“When they say they’re making progress, I’d say they’re really saying, ‘I’m like Carolyn Maloney, just don’t have any experience or knowledge base,’ she added.
The congresswoman added that her outlook on campaigns, even amid repeated key challenges, remains forward-looking.
“I don’t look back. Because sometimes, the battles that I’ve been through, are so painful that I don’t even want to remember. And, you know, every election is tough…” she said. “I want to save my energy and all my thoughts for the future.”
