Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday said he will run for Congress in the newly reconfigured 10th District.
Just over three months after the Democrat dispelled rumors about his bid to represent the 11th Congressional District, de Blasio said earlier this week that he was eyeing the redrawn 10th instead. On Friday he confirmed his candidacy during an MSNBC appearance, and later tweeted that he was running.
New York's 10th District is currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, but the state's political maps are being redrawn under supervision of a New York judge after a court found they were unconstitutional and gerrymandered in favor of Democrats.
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The court this week unveiled new proposed maps that significantly draw a number of New York City-based districts. Nadler said he believed the maps were changed so much that they are also unconstitutional, but if the proposed districts become final at the end of this week, he intends to run in the 12th District representing Manhattan.
The new 10th District takes in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope among others, as well as all of Manhattan below 11th Street. State Sen. Brad Hoylman has already declared for the race, and state Assembly members Robert Carroll and Yuh-Line Niou have said they were considering it.
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The primary contest has been pushed back from June to August 23.
De Blasio toyed with running for governor this year before deciding to sit it out. He also had a short-lived run for president in 2019.
His two terms as mayor ended last year. He has been on a media tour of late, writing op-eds and giving interviews in which he frankly acknowledged how unpopular he was as mayor, and what he could have done differently.
