Conway
(Photo
by
Brian
Stukes/Getty
Images
for
Stand
Up
For
Science)
Two
new
profiles
of
George
Conway
—
one
in
New
York
Magazine
one
in
the
Washington
Post
—
dropped
this
week,
and
together
they
paint
a
portrait
of
a
man
who
is
either
the
most
zen
candidate
in
the
NY-12
race,
or
with
the
biggest
ego.
Possibly
both.
The
key
quote,
from
the
New
York
Magazine
piece
which
focuses
on
a
number
of
the
candidates,
tells
you
everything
you
need
to
know
about
where
Conway’s
head
is
at
with
seven
weeks
to
go
before
the
June
23
primary:
“If
instead
of
deciding
to
become
a
lawyer
I
decided
to
pursue
my
interest
in
politics
and
go
into
politics,
I’d
be
really
really
stressed
out
right
now.
But
I
just
have
no
fucks
to
give,”
Conway
tells
David
Freedlander.
“You
want
to
vote
against
me,
it’s
your
loss.”
Spoken
like
a
man
who
checked
the
Polymarket
odds
on
himself.
As
of
May
2026,
prediction
markets
have
Conway
at
less
than
one
percent
chance
of
winning
the
Democratic
primary.
Conway,
it
seems,
has
read
those
numbers
and
decided
to
treat
them
as
a
personality
trait.
It
is,
in
some
ways,
the
logical
endpoint
of
a
long
journey
we’ve
been
watching
in
real
time.
Conway’s
the
former
Wachtell
litigator
who
just
couldn’t
stop
slamming
his
wife’s
boss,
a
man
so
compelled
to
dunk
on
the
president
that
he
co-founded
an
entire
PAC
to
do
it
more
formally.
That
PAC,
of
course,
was
the
Lincoln
Project,
and
by
the
time
the
2020
election
rolled
around,
the
organization
was
pretty
damn
successful.
Conway
himself
exited
the
Lincoln
Project
in
the
summer
of
2020
along
with
Kellyanne,
who
simultaneously
left
the
White
House,
both
departing
at
what
turned
out
to
be
a
rather
convenient
moment.
But
the
fighter
in
him
never
quit.
The
Lincoln
Project
itself
kept
swinging,
targeting
Foley
&
Lardner
after
partner
Cleta
Mitchell
participated
in
Trump’s
pressure
campaign
on
Georgia’s
Secretary
of
State,
going
after
Jones
Day
for
its
post-election
litigation
work,
launching
an
ad
campaign
against
them
and
their
clients,
and
demanding
Rudy
Giuliani
apologize
after
he
falsely
blamed
the
January
6th
insurrection
on
the
PAC.
(They
also
forced
Kasowitz
Benson
to
peddle
their
scare
tactics
elsewhere
when
Jared
and
Ivanka
tried
to
lawyer
up
over
some
Times
Square
billboards.)
Conway
himself
was
back
doing
Lincoln
Project
business
ahead
of
the
2024
election,
buying
a
“Vote
For
Joe
Not
The
Psycho”
billboard
and
strategically
placing
it
as
close
to
Mar-a-Lago
as
logistically
possible.
As
one
does.
The
congressional
run,
then,
is
not
a
break
from
the
pattern
—
it’s
an
escalation
that’s
ramped
up
since
Trump
won
the
2024
cycle.
And
when
we
last
saw
Conway
in
action
this
past
May,
at
a
Federalist
Society
debate
on
the
Biglaw
executive
orders,
he
was
arguing
strenuously
that
the
EOs
were
unconstitutional…
and
getting
heckled
by
the
FedSoc
crowd,
Alito-during-Obama’s-SOTU
style,
simply
for
mentioning
that
Trump
is
a
convicted
felon.
He
did
not
seem
particularly
rattled.
To
be
clear,
Conway
is
not
without
a
compelling
argument
for
his
candidacy.
He
has
spent
years
fighting
Trump
publicly
“in
every
way
I
could,”
including
helping
E.
Jean
Carroll
sue
Trump,
and
frames
his
congressional
run
as
an
extension
of
that
decades-long
battle.
The
Washington
Post
profile
traces
his
arc
from
nearly
taking
a
job
with
Donald
Trump
a
decade
ago
to
becoming
one
of
his
most
relentless
critics,
at
the
cost
of
his
marriage
and
his
Republican
identity.
But
the
progressive
bona
fides?
Those
are
shakier.
This
is,
let
us
not
forget,
a
man
who
spent
decades
as
a
committed
Republican,
who
actively
supported
Trump’s
2016
campaign,
and
who
once
argued
that
Roe
v.
Wade
was
incorrectly
decided
—
a
position
he
has
since
called
“appalling,”
but
still.
The
Lincoln
Project,
for
all
its
satisfying
anti-Trump
advertising,
was
never
in
the
business
of
dismantling
conservative
infrastructure;
it
was
in
the
business
of
saving
that
infrastructure
from
Trump.
Conway
and
his
colleagues
were
fundamentally
trying
to
preserve
a
version
of
Republican
governance,
not
usher
in
a
progressive
era.
That’s
a
complicated
history
to
bring
into
a
Democratic
primary
in
one
of
the
most
liberal
congressional
districts
in
the
country,
one
that
encompasses
the
Upper
West
Side,
the
Upper
East
Side,
and
Midtown
Manhattan,
and
that
has
been
represented
since
1992
by
one
of
the
most
reliably
progressive
members
of
Congress.
Conway
has
updated
some
of
his
positions.
If
elected,
he
says
he
would
fight
to
protect
the
Affordable
Care
Act
and
support
legislation
enshrining
abortion
rights
into
law.
But
“I’ve
been
fighting
Trump
longer
than
you”
is
a
tough
sell
in
a
primary
where,
as
one
opponent
noted,
being
a
Trump
critic
is
“hardly
a
unique
qualification”
—
essentially
every
candidate
in
the
race
shares
that
credential.
The
crowded
field
includes
state
lawmaker
Micah
Lasher
(who
has
outgoing
Congress
member
Jerry
Nadler’s
endorsement)
plus
Alex
Bores,
Jack
Schlossberg,
and
several
others,
leading
Conway
in
polling
and
fundraising
as
of
April.
And
yet.
There’s
a
case
to
be
made,
at
least
it’s
being
made
by
Conway,
that
the
conventional
checklist
for
a
Manhattan
congress
member
is
exactly
the
wrong
frame
for
this
particular
moment.
The
district
doesn’t
need
someone
to
fight
for
the
next
generation
of
progressive
policy
wins.
Right
now,
it
needs
someone
to
fight
Trump.
Not
politely,
not
strategically,
not
with
one
eye
on
a
future
leadership
position
or
a
2030
reelection
campaign,
but
someone
who
will
go
to
the
floor
of
the
House
and
be
an
absolute
nightmare
for
this
administration
every
single
day,
with
nothing
to
lose
and
no
political
future
to
protect.
Conway
has
been
doing
exactly
that
for
free,
from
the
outside,
for
nearly
a
decade.
Imagine
what
he
could
do
with
a
floor
pass.
There’s
something
almost
clarifying
about
a
candidate
who
genuinely
doesn’t
care
if
he
wins,
in
an
era
when
caring
too
much
—
caring
about
the
right
endorsements,
the
right
donors,
the
right
consultants
—
has
produced
a
Democratic
Party
apparatus
that
struggled
to
articulate
a
coherent
opposition.
Conway
isn’t
running
to
launch
a
political
career.
He
has
said
he
doesn’t
want
to
be
a
career
politician,
but
that
“this
is
a
moment
where
we
need
people
who
can
fight
Trump
the
way
he
needs
to
be
battled.”
The
implication
being:
do
this
for
a
term
or
two,
burn
it
down,
hand
it
off
to
someone
younger
with
a
more
conventional
political
profile
and
a
longer
runway.
It’s
an
unusual
pitch.
Whether
Manhattan
Democratic
primary
voters
find
that
argument
compelling
is
another
matter
entirely.
But
if
they
don’t?
Well,
per
Conway
himself:
their
loss.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
free
to
email her with
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments
and
follow
her
on
Twitter @Kathryn1 or
Bluesky @Kathryn1