George Conway says he wants only two terms in Congress to remove Trump

George Conway said he wants only two terms in Congress: one to remove President Donald Trump and a second to rebuild American legal institutions. The conservative attorney turned Trump critic made the remarks Thursday in an interview with PIX11.

Conway is running in a crowded Democratic primary for New York’s 12th Congressional District, the Manhattan seat held by Representative Jerry Nadler since 1992. Nadler is retiring. Nine candidates are competing for the nomination ahead of the June 23 primary.

“I don’t want to spend 30 years in Congress,” Conway said on PIX on Politics. “I want to get in for a term to get rid of the guy, and then a term to create, basically, an American legal reconstruction.”

Conway spent three decades as a litigator at the Manhattan firm Wachtell Lipton. He said he supports higher state taxes on wealthy New Yorkers and reinstating the federal state and local tax deduction, known as SALT. The 2017 Republican tax law capped the deduction at $10,000. The SALT cap is a central pocketbook concern for homeowners in the high-tax district.

His entry into the race on January 6 tested whether anti-Trump credentials alone could carry a candidate in one of the wealthiest and most Democratic districts in the country. Conway’s national name recognition came from years as a vocal Republican critic of Trump. That opposition cost him his marriage to Kellyanne Conway, the president’s former campaign manager and White House counsellor.

At a candidate forum at the New York City Bar Association last week, Conway called himself an experienced lawyer suited to the fight. He said Trump “needs to be impeached and removed” and argued that Congress must reassert itself through investigations, spending power, and impeachment.

Asked about his shift from Republican to Democrat, Conway said he was still “a conservative in the sense that I want to conserve things.” On foreign policy, he told the forum that Israel should be held accountable for violations of international law but added, “Israel is our ally. I would not abandon them.”

The candidates and the electorate

Conway faces a field that includes Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of President John F. Kennedy; state Assembly members Alex Bores and Micah Lasher; civil rights lawyer Laura Dunn; public health researcher Nina Schwalbe; software engineer Chris Diep; litigator Patrick Timmons; and entrepreneur Micah Bergdale.

Schlossberg has made campaign finance the centrepiece of his pitch. He said he does not accept money from super PACs, corporate PACs, or AIPAC. Lasher has the backing of former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Dunn delivered the sharpest intra-party attack of the forum when she called Schlossberg a “trust fund candidate” and criticised former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s endorsement of his candidacy.

A new analysis commissioned by AARP New York and conducted by Gotham Polling and Analytics projects that voters aged 50 and older will make up 65 to 75 per cent of the electorate in the primary. The report estimates total Democratic turnout at 70,000 to 85,000 voters.

“For candidates running in NY-12, the message is clear: this election will be decided by voters 50 and older,” said Beth Finkel, AARP New York State Director. “These voters show up, election after election. They expect candidates to address the issues that matter most to them, including protecting Social Security and supporting family caregivers.”

Only 9.7 per cent of active Democratic voters aged 18 to 29 in the district have ever voted in a congressional-cycle primary, the analysis found. By contrast, 63.6 per cent of voters 65 and older have done so.

What the primary tests

The NY-12 primary is one of the highest-profile House races of the 2026 midterm cycle. The district covers Manhattan’s West Side, from Midtown to the Upper West Side. The Democratic nominee is near-certain to win the general election in November.

The contest tests competing theories of what Democratic primary voters want in a midterm under a Republican president. Conway is running on legal credentials and a singular focus on Trump accountability. Schlossberg is betting on name recognition and a reformist message. Lasher and Bores are running on traditional Democratic politics and institutional experience.

Conway’s two-term pledge sets him apart. It is both a contrast with Nadler’s 32-year tenure and a signal that his candidacy is purpose-built for the current political moment rather than a career move.

The remaining candidates bring distinct backgrounds. Schwalbe said she had delivered billions of vaccines across more than 100 countries and negotiated with governments including Russia, North Korea and India. She proposed what she called the American Health Security Act, tying health care, housing and accessibility together. Timmons, a former Bronx assistant district attorney, described himself as a “radical pragmatist.” He said he opposed impeaching Trump and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he proposed an immigration “blue card” for undocumented immigrants who had lived in the country for 10 years. Bergdale promoted increasing the size of the House of Representatives so districts would be smaller and campaigns more local.

On foreign policy the candidates split sharply. Bergdale said the United States “cannot subsidise” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Dunn said Washington should end support for Israel unless it recognises a Palestinian state and abides by international law. Schlossberg said opposing the war in Iran means opposing funding for it, including offensive military assistance to Israel.

The forum unfolded as the district’s age profile sharpened into focus. The AARP-commissioned analysis found that younger voters, who helped power Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in the 2025 mayoral race, are a much smaller share of the congressional primary electorate. Voters 50 and older made up 72 to 74 per cent of turnout in recent congressional primaries in the district. The electorate tends to revert to an older baseline after higher-salience mayoral elections, the report said.

Conway is the only candidate who arrived in the race with a national following built outside politics. As a litigator at Wachtell Lipton he argued and won the 2010 Supreme Court case Morrison v. National Australia Bank, a decision that limited the extraterritorial reach of US securities law. His public opposition to Trump, waged through the Lincoln Project and a prolific social media presence, made him a fixture on cable news but also made his marriage to Kellyanne Conway untenable. The couple divorced. He relocated from the Washington suburbs to Manhattan to establish residency for the campaign.