Rep. Jerry Nadler will defeat his colleague Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a vicious House primary that locked the longtime New York Democrats in a battle for the heart of Manhattan, NBC News projected.
The two lawmakers were pitted against each other after a redrawn district map spurred them to compete for a single seat in Congress.
Nadler, 75, and Maloney, 76, have represented adjacent chunks of the island for about three decades. Both hold powerful seats in Congress: Nadler chairs the House Judiciary Committee, while Maloney leads the House Oversight Committee.
Nadler’s congressional district had included the Upper West Side, while Maloney’s covered much of the eastern half of Manhattan. But their separate districts were combined in May, the result of a messy and highly controversial redistricting process.
Both Nadler and Maloney announced they would run for the newly formed 12th Congressional District. Suraj Patel, who has challenged Maloney in two previous primary elections, was also on the ballot.
Despite their long history, the primary fight between Nadler and Maloney was anything but neighborly.
“He said, ‘Step aside, I’m running.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m running too. I’m not leaving,'” Maloney said in a New York Magazine profile of the race. “He said, ‘I’m gonna win.’ I said, ‘I’m gonna win.’ We haven’t spoken since,” she said.
Maloney has also fanned rumors that Nadler won’t serve out his full term if elected and that he’s senile and unfit for office — charges Nadler’s campaign has denied.
Nadler has highlighted the differences in their voting records, saying Maloney has been “wrong on very major issues” including her “cowardly” vote for the Patriot Act, New York Magazine reported. Nadler has also made his Jewish faith a central part of his pitch to voters.
Maloney, meanwhile, has sought to center her experiences as a woman in politics while touting her record on social issues — including abortion, a galvanizing topic in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade. She has been endorsed by famed attorney and feminist activist Gloria Steinem.
“You cannot send a man to do a woman’s job,” Maloney said in a recent television ad.
Correction: This report has been updated to correctly describe the area of Maloney’s former congressional district.
