This could be an AOC-like surprise — from the right.
Veteran Manhattan Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney may face her toughest Democratic primary challenge not from the progressive left but from the moderate-right flank of her party — in the form of anti-mask-mandate mom Maud Maron.
Maron says the mask mandates and other restrictions have unnecessarily hindered New York’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as stifled kids.
But that’s not the only reason she’s running. Mron also says Maloney and other establishment Democrats have cowered to the far-left.
Case in point: socialist firebrand Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was an outspoken opponent of Amazon opening a headquarters along the Queens waterfront while, she said, Maloney was a more low-key supporter.
“AOC won. Everyone was silent and AOC chased Amazon out of town. The older Democrats have fear of `The Squad,'” Maud said, referring to Democratic socialist Ocasio-Cortez and her progressive comrades in the House of Representatives — Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley.
Ocasio-Cortez rocked the Democratic political establishment when she handily defeated veteran congressman and Queens Democratic leader Joe Crowley in the 2018 primary in the 14th Congressional District. The stunning upset, fueled by a surge of younger, progressive voters, turned AOC into a household name and the new face of the democratic socialist movement.
Maron — who came in fourth in a primary race for City Council last year — emphasized that she’s no right-winger. A former public defender, she supported Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 and his focus on curbing inequality.
But she said Democrats have lost all semblance of reality when it comes to crime, citing problems with the controversial bail reform law that went too far in favor of recidivist criminals.
She said Democrats have to “stop blaming white supremacy” when individuals commit crimes.
“I’m trying to challenge Maloney from the moderate center. We need a course correction in the Democratic Party. Our city is not safe,” Maron said.
The reconfigured 12th Congressional District takes in the East Side of Manhattan — Maloney’s power base — as well as the parts of the West Side of Manhattan and smaller sections of waterfront neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn.
The new district removed some of the progressive voters in Brooklyn and Queens who voted against Maloney in recent primaries and added the Manhattan neighborhoods of Soho, Greenwich Village and parts of Midtown and the Upper West Side.
Maron is attempting to marshal the energy of everyday voters to rock the political establishment — as Ocasio-Cortez did when she defeated Crowley in 2018.
“I look around and see the old-time Democrats not doing anything to help families like mine. Our kids are getting the short end of the stick,” Maron, 50, a SoHo mom of four said.
“I started my day by giving my kids face masks this morning. My 5-year-old has to wear a mask all day. I’m pissed off,” Maron said.
She said because of pandemic restrictions there are still no special live events at schools.
“We didn’t do anything for Valentine’s Day. We don’t do any holiday parties. We don’t have live PTA meetings. My daughter does her dance program by Zoom but Carolyn Maloney went to the Met Gala and wasn’t wearing a mask,” Maron said.
She referred to fellow Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul as “Queen Kathy” for delaying the lifting of the mask mandate in schools, while the Omicron wave has faded and studies show low transmission of COVID-19 among youths and schools are safe.
“What the government is doing to our kids is a big part of why I’m running,” Maron said.
Other primary opponents are seeking to challenge Maloney from the left.
Lawyer and hotel executive Suraj Patel is running against Maloney for the third time. The incumbent narrowly defeated him by three percentage points in 2020.
Rana Abdelhamid, 28, who works in marketing at Google, is backed by the left-leaning Justice Democrats, the group that helped launch AOC’s career.
Community activists Maya Contreras and Jesse Cerrotti also vying for the seat.
Maloney, 75, who is seeking her 16th term and has never lost an election, said she relishes the opportunity to defend her record.
“Bring it on,” Maloney said. “I’ll see everyone on the campaign trail.”
Maloney, chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said she will remind voters she helped secure billions of federal dollars to help build the Second Avenue subway in the heart of her district as well as other mass transit improvements.
“Ask my opponents what they have done,” she said.
Maloney also took issue with Maron’s characterization that she didn’t fight hard for the Amazon project or that she’s afraid of the party’s AOC-socialist wing.
“I publicly stood with Amazon,” she said.
