2026 congressional midterm elections
Former Rep. Carolyn Maloney endorses Alex Bores in East Side versus West Side House race
Maloney and Nadler faced off four years ago. Now their protégés are facing off in NY-12.
Alex Bores (third from left), Jerry Nadler (front), Carolyn Maloney (third from right) and many other politicians attend New York City Council Member Virginia Maloney's inauguration ceremony. Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit
Former Rep. Carolyn Maloney is endorsing Assembly Member Alex Bores to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler – a move that firms up the contours of the race as an East Side versus West Side battle in Manhattan.
“If they're spending that much money to keep him out of Congress, he's exactly the person we need in Congress,” Maloney told City & State Tuesday night, referring to the artificial intelligence industry-backed super PAC running ads against Bores.
Maloney’s endorsement of her fellow Upper East Side resident came just a day after Nadler formally endorsed his fellow Upper West Side resident Assembly Member Micah Lasher in the Democratic primary.
Maloney and Nadler faced off in a vicious 2022 primary after redistricting pitted the three-decade incumbents against each other. Nadler won and there’s still bad blood.
“Jerry went to Congress, he was going to build a rail freight tunnel. It wasn't built,” Maloney said. “During my tenure, we built the Second Avenue Subway, the East Side (Access), the Kosciuszko Bridge, the L train modernization and the (East River) Esplanade.”
Bores, too, will do “the hard, tedious work that makes things happen,” Maloney said, “on the East Side, the West Side, all around the city.”
Bores has been an ally of Maloney since he entered politics and campaigned for her in the 2022 primary. But Maloney said she wasn’t waiting until Nadler endorsed Lasher to announce her own endorsement. Instead, she said she wanted to wait until after her daughter, New York City Council Member Virginia Maloney, had her in-district inauguration ceremony to speak up about politics again.
Maloney campaigned for Bores at a Tuesday night meeting of the Samuel J. Tilden Democratic Club. But the veteran politician’s endorsement wasn’t enough to win over the East Side club – Maloney confirmed the club voted to endorse Lasher instead.
Lasher’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Other candidates in the June 23 Democratic primary for the 12th Congressional District include Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg, anti-Trump activist George Conway and journalist Jami Floyd.