George Conway, persistent Trump critic, is running for Congress in New York

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NEW YORK (AP) — George Conway, who was once married to a former adviser to the president before becoming a prominent anti-Trump voice, announced on Tuesday that he is running for a U.S. House seat in New York City, testing whether he can turn his strong social media following into votes in a crowded Democratic primary.

Conway — who worked for years in New York City as an attorney but has more recently been living in Bethesda, Maryland — said he was spurred to run for Congress after a conversation with a friend about her frustration with some Democrats’ decision to vote to end last year’s government shutdown.

Conway didn’t want to challenge his congressman in Maryland, Rep. Jamie Raskin, who he said he loves, so the friend suggested he instead look at a seat in Manhattan that was soon to be vacant following the retirement of Rep. Jerry Nadler.

Conway said he looked it up on Wikipedia, and realized it was his old stomping grounds.

“It was like, huh, it’s an open seat. This isn’t crazy. I should think about this,” he said in an interview.

He relocated back to Manhattan a few weeks ago, he said.

Conway joins a flood of Democrats looking to take over Nadler's seat. Among the candidates are Nadler protégé and state lawmaker Micah Lasher, school shooting survivor and advocate Cameron Kasky and Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy.

In a campaign launch video, Conway, 62, positioned himself as a seasoned Trump foe whose extensive experience as an attorney would allow him to continue his yearslong fight against the president from Congress.

“This is no ordinary time. And I will not be an ordinary member of Congress,” he said.

Conway, a former Republican who helped found the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said that he doesn't want to be a career politician but felt that “this is a moment where we need people who can fight Trump the way he needs to be battled.”

He supported Trump's 2016 presidential run and had been married to Kellyanne Conway, a pollster and strategist who became senior presidential adviser in the first Trump White House as well as was one of Trump's fiercest defenders.

As Trump's first term went on, George Conway began to criticize Trump with an aggressiveness that rivaled his then-wife's ardent support of the president, drawing extraordinary attention to their relationship's diverging political positions.

At one point, Trump fired back, calling George Conway “a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!”

The Conways announced their divorce in 2023, writing in a statement that their marriage had included “many happy years.”

The district Conway is hoping to represent is considered solidly Democratic, consisting of Midtown Manhattan and the tony Upper East and Upper West sides.

Nadler, 78, last year said he would not run for reelection, with the longtime fixture of New York's congressional delegation calling for generational change in Congress. His planned exit has led to a flood of Democratic candidates emerging to take over his seat.