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Opinion: Why I am voting for Mondaire Jones to be our congressmember

BY ARTHUR Z. SCHWARTZ | Our community and the rest of Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope have been combined to form what is probably the most liberal/progressive district in the United States. It is called the 10th Congressional District, and the current congressmember, Jerry Nadler, is running in a different district. The primary on Aug. 23 is a historic opportunity, and we have the opportunity to elect an amazing man to represent us — one who is already in Congress, and who has been redistricted out of his former district.

His name is Mondaire Jones. Mondaire made history when he was sworn in on Jan. 3, 2021, as the nation’s first openly gay, Black member of Congress. A New York native, Mondaire grew up in Section 8 (government subsidized) housing and was raised by a single mom who worked multiple jobs to provide for their family.

He attended public schools in one of the worst school districts in the state in East Ramapo, but made it through. He got his B.A. from Stanford University and law degree from Harvard Law School and got his first job working in the Obama administration in the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Legal Policy, and then became a litigator in Manhattan and then with the Westchester County Law Department.

Mondaire Jones began his activism in high school through the Spring Valley NAACP Youth Council. He would go on to serve on the NAACP’s national board of directors. He is a co-founder of the nonprofit Rising Leaders, Inc., which teaches professional skills to underserved middle-school students in three American cities, and has served on the board of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

I first met Mondaire at a dinner in a friend’s apartment in 2018 with young progressive Black leaders considering running for office, including state Senator Zelnor Myrie. He was impressive! I had litigated to increase school funding in his home school district and understood the inner fortitude that it took for someone from there to even graduate, much less get into Stanford and then Harvard Law. We stayed in touch. In 2020 he announced that he was going to run in Westchester-Rockland County against the incumbent congressmember, Nita Lowey. Lowey decided to retire shortly thereafter and Mondaire won in a field of five candidates. (For the record, I was his election lawyer.)

Since his arrival in Congress, Mondaire has taken advantage of every opportunity to fight in Washington for his community. He was elected unanimously by his colleagues as the freshman representative to House Democratic leadership, making him the youngest member of the Democratic House leadership team. He was appointed a deputy whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and co-chairperson of the L.G.B.T.Q. Equality Caucus. He serves on the House Judiciary, Education and Labor, and Ethics Committees, where he has established himself as a leader on issues of democracy reform, civil rights, child care and climate. In 2021, the publication Axios rated Mondaire the most active freshman member of Congress.

But then redistricting happened. His home was placed into the district of his friend and colleague Jamaal Bowman, one of the more progressive new leaders in Congress, who Mondaire did not want to challenge.

“We both need to continue our work in Congress,” he told me when he called and asked what I thought about his running in the new 10th Congressional District. I told him that it would be amazing to have him represent my home community. He talked about how Greenwich Village had been a safe place for young gay and lesbian people of color, and how he considered it to be his second home. I said, “Welcome home!”

Electing Mondaire to represent us won’t be electing someone who needs to start exploring the halls of Congress. He is already deeply engaged and is considered a leader.

His most important bill is his proposed, widely co-sponsored bill to expand the size of the Supreme Court. As a staunch advocate for democracy reform and voting rights, Congressmember Jones co-authored and helped pass the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act in the House. He has authored and championed proposals for universal childcare and for lowering costs for working families through antitrust legislation. Recently, Congressmember Jones delivered $8.2 million in community project funding for his constituents.

Mondaire is not just “part” of a group of interesting candidates running for Congress. He stands head and shoulders above the group (not just because he is 6 feet tall). I predict that this race will come down to the child of a single Black mother versus Dan Goldman, the millionaire heir of the Levi Strauss fortune. Mondaire supports Medicare for All and the New York Health Act. Mondaire is one of the young vibrant leaders in Congress. Mondaire is a fervent environmentalist who has fought for increased funding for public schools. Mondaire has walked the walk.

I urge my neighbors to sort through all the mail we are receiving, go to vote on Aug. 23 (or vote early or by mail), and vote for Mondaire Jones.

Schwartz is a Democratic district leader for Greenwich Village.

12 Comments

  1. Rensen Rensen August 21, 2022

    Why is moving into a City Council district to run for the City Council not as controversial as moving into an Assembly district to run? Councilmembers spend more time in their district and forge long-term relationships with communities. All these candidates have a history of going away to school for at least four years and leaving their communities temporarilly. Progressives move around a lot and learn to make new alliances in their new location of geography.

  2. Carol from East 5th Street Carol from East 5th Street August 6, 2022

    What does Mondaire Jones from the HUDSON VALLEY know about NYC? In addition he gives proxy votes using Covid exceptions (while not having Covid) to others while he is partying in the South of France. NOT GETTING MY VOTE.

  3. Lily Carver Lily Carver August 5, 2022

    Obviously it depends what you are looking for in a Congressperson. Personally I want the most progressive person with a proven track record, so I am voting for Jones. I do resent the idea that he is some “timid” “carpetbagger” who fled his district. In fact he was pushed out by the same forces that frankly support Dan Goldman and others. Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of Democratic Congressional Campaign, in other words the man in charge of seeing that the most Democrats win, abandoned HIS district to run in Jones’s “safer” district, so Jones would have basically been fighting the most-connected, best-funded hack out there. I think our district is in fact a much “better” fit for a true progressive, but I am curious if those attacking him as a “carpetbagger” would have done the same if Nadler had chosen to move to the Village to run? I doubt it.

  4. Mo Mo August 4, 2022

    People are not going to vote in the same old stuff. Look at the mess out on the street. Chelsea and the village are overrun by homelessness, drug addicts and crime.

    • Gerry Valentine Gerry Valentine August 4, 2022

      Like this candidate is going to improve this situation.

    • Rensen Rensen August 21, 2022

      Mr. GLEASON is correct. The WFP Party cost the Democrats control of the New York State Senate in 2010 and Congress. WFP will sink the Yuh-Line campaign boat on Election Day.

  5. Basker Basker August 3, 2022

    Jones didn’t have the guts to fight for his NY17 constituents, you’re foolish to think he’ll fight for you.

    • Lily Lily August 4, 2022

      Exactly, He could have fought for his old seat (and likely have won) but decided to take advantage of an area he has no connection to when there are multiple candidates to have lived here for 10+ years.

  6. CD10 Resident CD10 Resident August 3, 2022

    Mondaire Jones is a self-serving carpetbagger who was too timid to defend his own seat in Rockland County and just moved into our district last month to keep his job.
    He’s not gotten one piece of legislation that he sponsored passed. But he has all the makings and trappings of a career politician, the last thing we need.
    There are better choices in this race.

  7. Georgette Fleischer Georgette Fleischer August 3, 2022

    According to yesterday’s announcement from the Elizabeth Street Garden, Mondaire Jones and Carlina Rivera are the only two candidates for New York’s 10th Congressional District who “publicly support destroying the garden for housing.”

    Whereas front-runner progressive candidate Yuh-Line Niou supports, and always has supported, preserving the Elizabeth Street Garden as open green space for the community.

    • Catherine Lavin Catherine Lavin August 4, 2022

      Yes!!! ESG is such an important green space and these leaders are not serving the best interests of the community by trying to destroy it.

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