Upstart Progressive Tests ‘Establishment’ Democrat in Hudson Valley Congressional Primary

Five-term Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) is seeking reelection in his Aug. 23 Democratic primary by touting his record as a moderate dealmaker who can win competitive elections in a swing Hudson Valley congressional district won by former President Donald Trump in 2016.

Maloney, a self-described “gay guy with an interracial family,” has represented New York’s purple Congressional District 18 (CD 18) for a decade.

But he’s not running for a sixth term in CD 18, rated by FiveThirtyEight as a “toss-up” district in November’s elections.

Instead, Maloney is campaigning for the party’s primary nod in neighboring CD 17, a Democrat-leaning district spanning parts of Rockland, Dutchess, and Putnam counties where he lives in Cold Spring.

New York Congressional District 17 Democratic primary candidate state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx) addresses voters in Congers in early August during her progressive campaign against moderate Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY). (Courtesy of Alessandra for Congress)

Maloney’s calculated maneuver to seek reelection in CD 17 rather than in CD 18 where he had won five elections since 2012 was fostered by May’s refashioning of the state’s congressional district map by a judge-appointed special master.

Democrats now control 18 of New York’s 27 congressional seats. But the state lost its 27th congressional seat in post-2020 Census reapportionment.

A 26-district map adopted for the 2022 midterms by the state’s Democrat-controlled General Assembly was rejected as gerrymandering in court rulings, which required a special master to re-craft them in a less partisan manner.

Because the final map wasn’t published until May, New York’s 2022 primaries were divided into two elections. Preliminary contests between party rivals for statewide positions, such as governor, were staged June 28 with those for congressional and state senate districts set for Aug. 23.

Maloney’s decision to run in CD 17 had a ripple