A crowded and competitive primary race is underway in the 12th Congressional District in Manhattan, where longtime Rep. Jerrold Nadler is stepping down after nearly 35 years in office.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the candidates took their case directly to voters at the first forum of the season.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Nine candidates in Manhattan\u2019s 12th Congressional District took part in their first candidate forum
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Two state lawmakers, Assemblymembers Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, are thought to be the leading candidates
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Prominent Donald Trump critic George Conway, Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and longtime journalist Jami Floyd are also running<\/p>\n
Two sitting state lawmakers, Assemblymembers Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, are thought to be the leading candidates, but the race features a number of intriguing alternatives.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s George Conway, a prominent and outspoken critic of President Donald Trump; Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President John F. Kennedy Jr.; and longtime TV and radio journalist and commentator Jami Floyd, who described herself to the audience at the well-attended forum as \u201ca radical moderate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nine candidates participated in the forum. Lasher, who represents the West side and is thought to be Nadler\u2019s preferred candidate, made a spirited case.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should ask the question, ‘Who has the legislative record that indicates a capacity to take on Donald Trump and his band of fascists on issue after issue and get things done?’\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bores, who represents the East side, does not diverge much from Lasher on policy, but he took several swipes at his opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had said abolish ICE before I ran to Foley Square. I said it again, and I said Trump and Kristi Noem were also responsible,\u201d he said. \u201cAnother candidate in this race, another elected official, said, ‘Here’s a bunch of investigations that should happen.'”<\/p>\n
The others participating Wednesday were gay rights activist Mathew Shurka; civil rights attorney Laura Dunn; public health expert and advocate Nina Schwalbe; former finance executive Alan Pardee; and IT engineer Chris Diep.<\/p>\n
As for Schlossberg, the Kennedy lineage has earned him lots of attention, though he has little practical experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the only place on earth where I could run for office from,\u201d he told the audience. \u201cI grew up on the Upper East Side, went to high school on the Upper West Side, [and] live in Chelsea. This is the place I love. And I think that this [district] deserves somebody who knows how to fight and how to dance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conway did not attend the forum, which was hosted by several Democratic clubs, some of whom are expected to make endorsements in the next few weeks, though the primary is still five months away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A crowded and competitive primary race is underway in the 12th Congressional District in Manhattan, where longtime Rep.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[109,25,3284,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,87,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-108316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-bobby-cuza","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-manhattan-headlines","13":"tag-manhattan-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}