The purpose of the rally, convened by Representative Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, was technically to craft a 12-point plan to address the repeal of abortion rights that is consuming the country. “I’ve been in this fight a long time,” said the 15-term congressman. “We take a step forward, they push us back.” But as she and others took turns speaking, those in attendance — including the leaders of the Feminist Majority and the National Organization for Women — found themselves facing another, more immediate crisis, too: the possibility that Ms. Maloney, one of the most powerful women in Congressman, could retire from office this month after three decades. Just a week before New York’s Aug. 23 primary, Ms. Maloney is nearing the end of an unwelcome, open and increasingly vicious primary battle against her longtime congressional neighbor, Representative Jerrold Nadler, after a court of New York unexpectedly combined their districts in Manhattan. This spring. With overwhelmingly similar views, the candidates struggled all summer to differentiate themselves. Mr. Nadler, 75, sought to claim the progressive mantle and emphasized his status as the city’s last remaining Jewish lawmaker. A first-time challenger, Suraj Patel, a 38-year-old lawyer, is targeting younger voters, stressing the need for a generational change against two septuagenarians who were first elected in the 1990s. But for Ms. Maloney, 76, and her allies, the race increasingly centers on women — both their electoral potential to influence the outcome and the importance of protecting one of their own at a time when the Supreme Court and Republican-led states are rolling back reproductive rights enshrined half a century ago. The congresswoman has loaned the campaign $900,000 from her own fortune and is spending a sizable chunk of it on a TV ad reinforcing the message: “You can’t send a man to do a woman’s job,” she tells The New Yorker. “Maybe he can speak better than I can,” Ms. Maloney said in an interview after the event, referring to Mr. Nadler. “Men are more likely to trust them. But I’m a fighter. Women fight for women.” A fixture of the rarefied Upper East Side and the backrooms of Congress, Ms. Maloney is not nationally known or a particularly well-known orator. Yet few women have amassed more influence in Washington, or used it with such sharp focus, to push for the Equal Rights Amendment, paid family leave, a national women’s history museum, and the fight against gender-based violence. “I’m not here to speak out against Jerry Nadler,” said Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine and leading representative of the women’s movement, who lives in the area. “It is in my mind to say that Carolyn Maloney is the most needed, the most trusted and the most experienced, and we need to send her back to Washington.” Ms. Maloney, a tenacious politician known for 5 a.m. temper tantrums and campaigns that can last for years, was less sensitive. In the interview, she said flatly that Mr. Nadler did not work as hard as she did, particularly on local issues. she accused him of taking credit for a woman’s work and said the residents of one of the nation’s wealthiest, most liberal districts needed her — not him or Mr. Patel. The talk sent goosebumps to Mr. Nadler’s supporters, particularly after she attacked him for highlighting his Jewish identity. She had earlier insisted she would never ask women to vote for her based on her gender. Ms. Maloney’s long career in public life — which began as a teacher in East Harlem in the 1970s after a car accident nearly took her life and ended her aspirations as a ballerina — and her campaign messages were undoubtedly more varied than that. He wore an FDNY jacket for years fighting for medical benefits for 9/11 first responders. He helped bring home billions of dollars to support the Second Avenue Subway and recently overhauled the Postal Service, accomplishments he’s eager to tout on the campaign trail. Ms. Maloney recently convened a meeting at Eleanor Roosevelt’s former home to lay out an agenda to protect reproductive rights.Credit…Desiree Rios/The New York Times The current campaign is also being slowed by the resurgence of legislation, letters and statements Ms. Maloney made years ago questioning whether there was a link between vaccines and autism in children, which her opponents say effectively gave a credible voice to one of the more common — and debunked — claims made by vaccine skeptics. Ms Maloney said she “regrets” asking questions about the matter and has called attention to her efforts to distribute the Covid vaccine. But that didn’t stop Mr. Patel and Mr. Nadler from skewering her, nor did it stop a shadowy anti-Maloney super PAC from keeping more than $200,000 in 11th-hour ads boosting the attack. (Ms. Maloney called the dark money ad dishonest and “yet another example of the old-boy network of New York politics trying to take down a powerful woman by any means necessary.”) Ms. Maloney’s campaign used similar framing to reject Senator Chuck Schumer’s endorsement of Mr. Nadler on Monday, arguing that Ms. Maloney was the best choice at a time when women’s rights are at stake. Indeed, few priorities have been more closely linked to her career as a work of the women’s movement. She announced her candidacy for Congress on the day of Planned Parenthood v. Casey of the Supreme Court to limit abortion rights. She upset a long-serving MP in 1992, when there were only about 28 women in Parliament. fought to pass bills to crack down on human trafficking and expand paid family leave. Her so far unsuccessful work to pass the deadlocked Equal Rights Amendment (written by Alice Paul, a relative of her late husband) was so comprehensive that Ms Maloney attended the Met Gala last year wearing a yellow, green and purple dress. for his passing. Enshrining women in the Constitution, she believes, is “the answer” to many of the efforts to limit reproductive rights and discriminate against women. Along the way, Ms. Maloney has broken barriers for women at nearly every stage of her career — becoming the first person to give birth while on City Council (“It was, like, national news,” she laughed) and, most recently, the first woman to lead the powerful House Oversight Committee. Some political strategists and pundits following the race, however, believe the appeal may be narrower than Ms. Maloney wants — particularly given Mr. Nadler’s track record of fighting on many of the same issues. His team was quick to point out that Ms Maloney does not have a monopoly on female voters. The campaign quickly assembled a Nadler women’s group led by Gale Brewer and Ruth W. Messinger, popular former Manhattan borough presidents. “America cannot afford to lose him,” Senator Elizabeth Warren says in Mr. Nadler’s television ad. (Planned Parenthood and NARAL have both endorsed incumbents.) “I’m very proud of my record of supporting a long line of women leaders for elected office,” said Cynthia Nixon, a Nadler supporter and actress running for governor of New York in 2018. “Carolyn’s record just doesn’t hold up. a candle Jerry’s record of passing major civil rights legislation—indeed leading every major LGBT civil rights bill in the last 20-plus years—and voting with principle and courage, like no on the Iraq War and the Patriot Law”. Mr Patel, for his part, said the dispute between the two incumbents over who deserves credit for what is more telling. “We’re running a race focused on the future, and they’re both running a race, frankly, thinking about each other’s past,” he said, noting that he agreed with their positions. But Ms. Maloney’s supporters insist there is a difference between taking the right positions on women’s issues and making them central to your work in Congress. “As much as male lawmakers believe in a woman’s right to choose, I haven’t asked any of them to call me and mobilize me to act,” said Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women. Ms. Ossorio feels so strongly that she is distributing copies of a letter she wrote supporting Ms. Maloney to residents of her East Side building. “He puts women first when he makes decisions,” she said. Sitting across from a portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt the other day, Ms. Maloney put a similar context on the contest with Mr. Patel and her old ally, Mr. Nadler. “This is the woman’s time,” Ms Maloney said. “This is the time when we need our most experienced and toughest leaders in Washington to fight for women’s rights and turn this around.”
