Whitmer’s sister announces bid for Lawler’s seat

Small business owner Liz Gereghty, the sister of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), announced on Tuesday she’s launching a bid to take Rep. Mike Lawler’s (R-N.Y.) seat.

“Now I’m running for Congress because when reproductive rights are getting rolled back in state after state, and schools have to take money from books and spend it on bulletproof glass because Congress refuses to do anything on gun violence,” Gereghty says in her first ad.

“When it costs too much to live in the Hudson Valley or run a business here; and when the radical Republican majority in Congress is too busy banning books to help working families like yours, something’s gotten way off track,” she added.

Gereghty is running to unseat Lawler in New York’s 17th Congressional District, which nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates as a “toss up.”

Meanwhile, Politico reported that former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) is also preparing a bid for the seat. 

Former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who served as the chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, lost to Lawler last November — which was a huge upset for Democrats. 

Maloney opted to run in the 17th Congressional District instead of the 18th Congressional District, forcing Jones to run in another district to avoid an awkward member-on-member primary challenge. Jones lost the Democratic primary to Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) when he ran instead in New York’s 10th Congressional District.

Democrats are investing heavily in the New York area in the 2024 cycle after Lawler and several other Republicans flipped several Democratic-held seats, helping deliver Republicans a GOP House majority.