
(NewsGlobal.com)- Bill de Blasio is apparently not done with politics just yet.
The former mayor of New York City is apparently considering whether he should run for the House of Representatives, according to reports from both Politico and the New York Post.
Those media outlets sourced people who are close to the former mayor. They said he might try to run in the 11th Congressional District in New York. This is now possible after re-districting in the state put Park Slope in that district, as that’s where de Blasio lives.
If de Blasio does throw his hat into the ring, it would end up being quite the fight.
First, he’d have to contend with Max Rose in the Democratic primary. Rose is seeking to capture his old seat back after he lost in 2020 to Republican Nicole Malliotakis.
If de Blasio were to advance to the general election, he’d be facing off against Malliotakis, just as he did in the 2017 election for mayor of New York City.
The re-districting is a big deal across the country, but especially in New York. The state’s legislature just approved a new congressional map this week that could help Democrats flip up to three seats in the House in the November midterm elections.
Malliotakis’ district is now more blue than it was before. In fact, there 22 House districts in New York now favor Democrats, compared to only four for Republicans.
The map isn’t official yet, as Governor Kathy Hochul must sign off on it. But, that’s all but a foregone conclusion that the Democratic governor will do so.
For her part, Malliotakis has slammed the re-districting plan as “a blatant attempt by the Democrat leadership in Albany to steal this seat, even after New Yorkers voted twice by ballot referendum for non-partisan maps.”
If he does indeed run for a seat on the House, de Blasio is likely to face a contentious primary. In the past, Rose has expressed publicly how he disapproves of de Blasio.
In an ad for his 2020 run for Congress, Rose said that “Bill de Blasio is the worst mayor in the history of New York City.”
Earlier this week, he sent an email blast to his supporters with the subject line: “De Blasio running against me (swear this isn’t a joke).”
The Post reported that the email wrote:
“Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has never been my biggest fan, but now he might be my primary opponent. I know, I laughed at first too, but the implications aren’t funny.”
De Blasio was a very polarizing figure in New York politics. He served as mayor of New York City for seven years, from 2014 to 2021. He termed out of the position and couldn’t run for re-election last year.
When he left office, rumors swirled that he might eye a run at the state’s governorship, but he quickly dispelled those rumors in a video saying he wouldn’t be running against Hochul.
In that same video, de Blasio said he was still going to “devote every fiber of my being to fight inequality in the state of New York.”