A polling station in Manhattan on Tuesday (Getty)
New York’s 12th Congressional District was in the spotlight Tuesday after state Assemblyman Micah Lasher, a former aide to retiring Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler and his endorsed successor, topped an eight-candidate primary field.
But the headlines were less about Lasher than the high-profile opponents he defeated, including President John F. Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg and Republican-turned-Democrat George Conway (best known as the former husband of Kellyanne Conway, who served as senior counselor to President Donald Trump in his first term).
Lasher, 44, is widely viewed as the favorite to succeed Nadler.
The 12th Congressional District, which includes Midtown Manhattan as well as the city’s Upper West Side and Upper East Side, has been in Democratic hands since 1992 and has six times as many registered Democrats as Republicans.
“And the national press is wrong,” GOP nominee and attorney-businesswoman Caroline Shinkle, 33, told Newsmax less than 24 hours after learning she would face Lasher in November.
“My opponent represents the failed status quo and has never held a job outside the public sector, and I have had a life in the private sector — law, economics, and global economic issues,” Shinkle said. “What could be a greater contrast?”
The GOP nominee added that, in a low-turnout primary, more than 61% of Democrats voted against Lasher, “and that was with $10 million pumped into the race to help him by the super PAC headed by [former New York Mayor] Mike Bloomberg. I cannot believe that Manhattanites voted for the essential destruction of Manhattan and New York.”
She was referring to the agenda of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Although Mamdani endorsed three like-minded Democrats who won U.S. House nominations elsewhere in the city, the democratic socialist remained neutral in the 12th Congressional District.
But as Shinkle and other Empire State Republicans pointed out to Newsmax, Lasher has criticized little if anything in the mayor’s agenda.
Shinkle said she plans to tie Lasher to Mamdani and democratic socialism during the campaign. In her words, “common sense will prevail over crazy.”
In contrasting herself with her opponent, Shinkle said: “I have spent a lifetime in the private sector — after graduating from MIT and Harvard Law School, I worked for the Federal Reserve Board, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Israel, the Bank for International Settlements.
“Now I practice law right here in Manhattan. I’m a different kind of candidate.”
Two issues on which Shinkle looks forward to debating Lasher are crime and antisemitism.
“We need to take a hard line on crime and support local police,” she said. “And I have lived in Israel and support the country and the people.
“I marched proudly in the Israel Day parade and I’m the only candidate in this race who is pro-Israel.”
Asked if she will try to tie Lasher to antisemitism, Shinkle replied: “Yes. He endorsed Mamdani for mayor, didn’t he?”
While the 12th Congressional District has been changed by redistricting over the years, Shinkle believes grassroots campaigning and making the case for a “Manhattan Republican,” which worked for former Rep. Bill Green, R-N.Y., who served in the House from 1978 to 1993, can work again.
“It will be a modern-day ‘Manhattan Project,'” said Shinkle, referring to the code name for the project that built the atomic bomb. “But all politics is still local. And I say if we win here, we can end the war on common sense.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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