Democrat Mondaire Jones seeks to win back House seat after losing out in NY’s redistricting process #Democrat #Mondaire #Jones #seeks #win #House #seat #losing #NYs #redistricting #process

SLEEPY HOLLOW, N.Y. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones said Wednesday that he is seeking to win back the suburban New York congressional seat he lost after redistricting juggled the state’s congressional maps last year.

Jones, 36, a Harvard Law School graduate who in 2020 become one of the first two gay Black men elected to Congress, touted his working-class roots in a video announcing his campaign.

“Most people in Washington didn’t grow up like me,” said Jones, who was raised by a single mother in the Rockland County community of Spring Valley, which is in the district he represented for one term. “They have no idea what it’s like to struggle.”

FILE - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray arrive for the official dedication ceremony of the Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island, May 16, 2019, in New York. Former New York CIty Mayor de Blasio and McCray are separating but not divorcing after 29 years of a marriage that helped lift de Blasio into the mayor's job. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, say they are separating but not divorcing after 29 years of a marriage that helped lift de Blasio into the mayor’s job.

FILE-New York City Council candidate Yusef Salaam speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in New York. Salaam, one of the exonerated “Central Park Five,” has won the Democratic primary, Wednesday, July 7, all but assuring him a seat on the New York City Council. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

A member of the “Central Park Five” has won the Democratic primary for a seat on the New York City Council representing Central Harlem.

FILE - New York City Council candidate Yusef Salaam speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, May 24, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

New York City elections officials will begin releasing preliminary results from ranked choice voting in last week’s City Council primaries.

Justina Machado poses for a portrait at the London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills to promote her series “The Horror of Dolores Roach" on Thursday, June 22, 2023, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

When Justina Machado returns home to her native Chicago, she barely recognizes it. Machado grew up in Chicago’s inner city, in the neighborhoods Lincoln Park, Humboldt Park and Logan Square — all of which she says have been gentrified.

Elected to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District, north of New York City, Jones was among those who lost in the state’s contentious 2022 redistricting process, which put him in the same district as former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.

Rather than running in the redrawn 17th District, Jones joined a crowded Democratic primary field in the 10th Congressional District in New York City, losing to former federal prosecutor Daniel Goldman, who went on to win the general election.

Maloney lost narrowly to Republican Michael Lawler in the 17th District in a 2022 election that saw Republican candidates pick up several New York seats.

Other Democrats seeking to represent the 17th District include Liz Whitmer Gereghty, a Katonah-Lewisboro school board member and sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

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