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
The post Former Biglaw Partner George Conway Has Absolutely Zero F*cks To Give About His Congressional Run appeared first on Above the Law.
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
The post Former Biglaw Partner George Conway Has Absolutely Zero F*cks To Give About His Congressional Run appeared first on Above the Law.
